randian | 燃点

A quick glance at the body language of gallerists in their booths on the closing day of Art14 made clear that last year’s levels of satisfaction had not been matched in the second edition of the global London fair.In hindsight, this closing mixture of sellers’ ennui and spectators’ energy may be what sums up this second edition of Art14, its context and challenges.

Much as the Beijing winter has been very mild this year, overall, the art of the past year has also felt rather milder and more sentimental from previous years. Let us then explore the production and exhibition of this “old” contemporary art in the contemporary Chinese art world.

The classic quote by Karl Marx goes: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” Such satire is not only appropriate in reference to Napoleon and his nephew, Napoleon III…

With money and space, the Long Museum has potential, but do they have the curatorial chops to turn a building into a museum? Despite a less-than-mind-blowing first show, it’s nonetheless a good place to see a very extensive collection of Chinese art.

As we might have imagined, the Chinese art scene of 2012 was full of glitz and clamor. This was demonstrated most aggressively through the curation in the first large-scale solo show of the year…

Rebecca Catching examines the art of Crafting a Biennale experience, how we view an exhibition. What makes it enjoyable and endurable and why curators these days seem hell-bent on turning the exhibition floor into a library.

themes and memes in contemporary iconography Last time we left off with the image of the black hole – assuming a black hole is capable of being an image. But at least we can imagine one. Laurent Grasso approaches the notion elegantly, as a an edge - the event horizon. The frame becomes the subject and […]

themes and memes in contemporary iconography Our next vortex is a human iris, painted by Marc Quinn, with super-photorealist precision. Quinn is most famous for his self-portrait bust composed of his own frozen blood (“Self” 2006). Here the gaze of the viewer is directly returned. It is a classic (psychological) vortex – threatening and dizzying […]