Shanghai Artist Battle

Dyce Productions is bringing the Artist Battle (cousin of Rap Battle and Yo Momma Battle) to Shanghai.

The artist battle is a competition in which visual artists of any medium and genre are welcome to participate. Artists compete against one another by fabricating art in a live performance for cash prizes. The attending audience judges the competition by voting for their favorite artist(s).

Come get involved! Fine art as entertainment!
Artists will have three(3) hours –AND ONLY 3 HOURS!!!- to complete their entire piece of artwork.

The Battle will be on Friday October 22, 2010 from 8-11pm (artists should arrive at least an hour early to get set up) The winners will be announced at midnight.

Thirty local artists will “battle” for a ¥2000 grand prize. Each artist has 3 hours to complete an original piece of artwork to be judged by audience votes.

What kind of artwork? Any medium the artist chooses to use. Ice sculpture, junk sculpture, painting, culinary arts, body painting, folk art, and more! The possibilities are only limited by the artists’ creativity.

This unique event is the first time that programming of this sort has been done in Shanghai. The placement within an urban neighborhood will showcase the raw potential of both the artists, and the success of The Bund redevelopment. With a little ‘out of the box’ thinking ‘Artist Battle’ works to promote The Bund as a vibrant place for creativity, community, and culture.

1st place prize is ¥2000rmb, 2nd is ¥750, and 3rd place is ¥250.
The entry cost for artists is ¥100rmb. This is what constitutes the prize money.

When: October 22, 8 to 11pm

Where: House of Roosevelt at No.27 on The Bund

For more information >>

Xu Di's Seafood Philosophy

Because the quality of seafood is difficult to maintain, its value is temporary. No matter how expensive it is, the next day it’s worth nothing when it’s gone bad. This characteristic piqued my interest. It’s like emotion, fame, or principles -- fleeting and fragile.

- from an interview with CityWeekend

Xu Di's Vivid as Fruit photography show is on exhibit at Vanguard Gallery from September 3 - October 10, 2010.

Address : Room 204, Bldg 4A, 50 Moganshan Lu
Email: vanguardg@gmail.com
Phone: 5252-2551, 6299-3523

ArtHub | Curatorial Presentations

Please join us for a low-key curatorial session in about a month in Shanghai, on Friday September 17, from 10.00 until approx. 15.00, during which the de Appel Curatorial Programme participants will present themselves and their past exhibition work from their respective contexts. If you want see and respond to their work and share your curatorial past, present or upcoming work or ideas, please do let us know. The presentations do not have to be more than 10–15 minutes.

Six of the participants are from India, Canada, France, Argentina, Australia and the Netherlands. They will be traveling to South Korea (Gwangju, Seoul and Busan), Taiwan (Taipei) as well as China (Shanghai and Beijing) for their research trip. For many of them, it’s the first time visiting any of these countries.

It is pretty DIY affair with space limited for participants. Lunch will be provided. Arthub Directors Defne Ayas and Davide Quadrio will be on site.

davide@arthubasia.org
defne@arthubasia.org

For more information >>

Person of Interest | Tod Volpe

The article The Six-Figure Fish Tank Catches On appeared in yesterday's New York Times. The article quoted one aquarium owner describing a jellyfish tank as "living art" while Tod Volpe called his tank his "life force".

Tod Michael Volpe's room-dividing tank.
Photo courtesy of Robert Presutti for The New York Times

Tod Volpe is a name that most people probably haven't heard much of since 1997 when he was convicted for art fraud, stripping him of status and fortune in a dramatic turn of events. In the article, Jennifer A Kingson reports, "Mr Volpe was once a high-flier in Hollywood who bought artwork for celebrities like Barbra Streisand and Jack Nicholson, but in the late 1990s he pleaded guilty to defrauding them and served time in jail. Today, he said, the aquarium is part of his healing journey."

Notes on The Man, The Legend

• Volpe was raised in poverty with an abusive father.
• Pioneered the American Arts & Crafts movement by rescuing Mission pieces from flea markets, restoring them, and selling them in New York.
• Obtained a Mission-style desk designed by Charles Rohlfs by telling the owners it was fake, though he believed otherwise. Then sold the desk to a wealthy client by fabricating a romantic tale about how the desk remained in an old mansion for generations. He clinched the sale by informing the would-be buyers that the desk would appear in a book -- a book which Volpe co-authored. The desk is now part of the permanent collection of the Virginia Museum.
• At the height of his career as an art dealer, his clients included Jack Nicholson, Barbara Streisand, Bruce Willis & Demi Moore, Arnold Shwarzenneger & Maria Shriver, Joel Silver, Lawrence Gordon, Richard Gere, Harvey Keitel, Terry & Jane Semel, Robert & Nancy Daly, Carole Bayer Sager, Don Simpson, Barry Manilow, Tim Curry, Francine Le Frak, Joe Weider, Marry Ellen & Robert Zemeckis, Kathleen Kennedy & Frank Marshall, Renny Harlin & Geena Davis, Andy Warhol, Harold Becker, Linda & Jerry Bruckheimer, Patsy & Steve Tisch, Rowland Perkins, Jack Rapke, John Hughes, Max Palevsky.
• According to Volpe's website, he has been involved with the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Victoria & Albert Museum, The British Museum, The Musee Dorsay, The St. Louis Art Museum, The New Jersey State Museum, The Delaware Art Museum, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The National Academy of Design, The Corcoran Museum, The Smithsonian, The Clarke Institute, The Boston Museum of Art, The Newark Museum, The Copper Hewitt, The Phillips Collection, The Oakland Museum, The Museum of the City of New York, The Richmond Museum of Fine Art, The High Museum, and The Chicago Art Institute.
  
• Instead of standing trial, which would have revealed the unscrupulous, secret world of art dealing, Volpe pled guilty to 37 counts of art fraud and served two years in a federal U.S. prison. When he came out of prison, he published Framed, which reveals the unscrupulous, secret world of art dealing.
• The first post of his short-lived blog is dated July 15, 2008. The second -- and last -- post is dated January 11, 2009.
• Used to live in Hollywood and drive a Porsche Cabriolet. Today lives in a studio apartment in Manhattan's Murray Hill neighborhood.
  

"I’d like to do what Frank Abagnale did with Catch Me If You Can." November 2003

"I always gravitated towards breaking new ground with art since my former partner and I opened the Jordan Volpe Gallery in New York in 76 and broke gound in the American art world,, pioneering a style of collecting that has become an international phenomenon." July 2008

"The days of getting 100 million for a painting by telling this billionaire and that one that someone else is going to steal that piece from them if they don't bid on it are over." January 2009

"My work is not about dealing art its about helping people in the art world and in the business world find their way through the maze. And to help people learn how to love art again and enjoy it for its own sake not because it is an item of luxury how I started at flea markets restoring things I loved and helping others see the beauty in things." January 2009

It is being whispered that Tod Volpe's next chapter may involve Shanghai...

Artist Residency near Shanghai | The Pottery Workshop

The Pottery Workshop welcomes international artists to experience life in Jingdezhen, one hour's flight from Shanghai. We’ll give you the chance to explore traditional Chinese methods of ceramics production in a comfortable studio with modern facilities.

The residential studio program includes:
* 24-hour access to our air-conditioned studio
* Excellent facilities, including a glaze laboratory, use of electric wheel, work table, tools, bats, and boards
* Studio assistants who help with introducing you to Jingdezhen, translating, and solving technical problems.
* Full room and board. Lunch and dinner are served every day except Sundays.
* Accommodation includes flush toilets, hot shower, air-conditioned rooms, regular cleaning service, and free wireless broadband Internet.

Fees and Other Costs

The cost of the residential studio program is Rmb2400/week. You should prepare for other costs such as firing fees and materials.

When to Come

The studio is busiest in the Spring and Fall, when the weather is fair. Summer is hot, but our air-conditioned studios are quite comfortable. Winter is our slowest season. Learn more about Jingdezhen’s average and current weather.

The studio is open all year except for one month during the Chinese New Year (around the month of February).

The Pottery Workshop
Hours: Monday-Saturday, 9:00AM-5:00PM CST to answer your questions.
Telephone: (86798) 8440582 (86798) 8440628
Fax: (86798) 8440585
Email: infojdz@potteryworkshop.com.cn
Address: 139 East Xinchang Lu, Jingdezhen, China 333001

To learn more >>

Artist Residency in Shanghai | Andrew James Art & JIA Hotel

Basics of the Program

Application Age: Artists over 21 years of age.
Period of Stay: 4 Weeks

JIA Hotel Shanghai Provides: One hotel room and one studio (approx. 30sqm or 300sqf) free of charge.
Residency artist is provided with free breakfast, free afternoon tea and free wifi throughout the hotel.
Andrew James Art gallery provides local technical support to the artists.

Artists are responsible for the following expenses:
Any fee incurred outside the room charge, e.g. phone charge, mini bar and room service, etc.
Visa fees, air tickets and local travel expenses.
Artists’ living expenses and personal expenditures during the stay.
Material and other cost for production of the works.
Artists’ medical expenditure.
Any other expenses.

Residency Room

A suite room is provided, with a small kitchen (including stove and cooking utensils), TV, DVD, private bathroom and free wifi throughout the hotel.

Artist’s Studio

One unfurnished room in the hotel, approx. 30sqm (300sqf) with private toilet facility.

Andrew James Art
39 North Maoming Road, Shanghai
China 200041
Telephone: +86 21 5228 7550
Fax:+86 21 5228 6289
Opening Hours: Tue-Sun 11am-7pm; Other Times By Appointment
Email: andrew@andrewjamesart.com

To learn more about the program >>

Artist Residency in Shanghai | island6

Applications

island6 is open for all applicants, there are no application deadlines.

Selection of Participants

The applicants are selected by island6 Arts Center.
All applications should be sent to contact@island6.org
Each application should include:
• CV of the applicant
• Project proposal
• Intended period of stay
• Digital portfolio

island6 Arts Center studio provides artists with following conveniences:
The studio covers a surface of 200 sqm.
The studio is self-contained with: phone, heating, Internet connection (you have to bring your own laptop), furnishings and kitchen.

island6 Arts Center helps you with translation, research and communication and will keep you in touch with events occurring in the art world of Shanghai.

island6 Arts Center provides occasional technical consultancy to help with the creation of the work and can potentially help you to find an appropriate collaborator from your field of work or complimentary field.

island6 Arts Center from participants of residence program expects:
• Professional attitude towards the space, facilities and people involved.
• Hard work - from 10 – 19.00; from the first day you arrive till the end of the residency.
• Collaboration with one or more local artist(s).
• Completion of at least one new artwork (of any media).

Accommodation

Fully furnished service apartment with Internet access.

island6 Arts Center
50 Moganshan Lu (near Changhua Lu and Xi Suzhou Lu, behind Aomen Lu)
六岛艺术中心, 莫干山路50号6号楼2楼 (近昌化路和西苏州路)
EXHIBITION HOURS: DAILY 10:00 TO 19:00 OR BY APPOINTMENT
Telephone: +86 (0)21 6227 7856
Email: contact@island6.org

To learn more >>

VENICE PAVILION : Open Wall Installation

Open Wall by artist Sheng Shan Shan

CityWeekend writes:

Coming straight from the 53rd Venice Biennale, Sheng Shan Shan’s “Open Wall” is a 20m long glass installation that recreates the Great Wall. The transparency of Sheng’s chosen medium reinterprets the iconic monument—each of the 2208 glass bricks delivers a powerful message on contemporary China’s newfound openness. Temporality, permeability and the question of outsider / insider status are themes especially pertinent in the context of the Expo.

VENUE:
Expo Zone E, UBPA Joint Pavilion B1, Venice Pavilion, Shanghai
上海世博园，E区，城市最佳实践区，B1 威尼斯馆
PHONE: +86 1347 2733 226

Expansions

The Shanghai gallery system has experienced a fair share of expansion and economy this year -- galleries have closed, some have moved, and others have added more space. Last week Global Times asked whether the new crop of gallery spaces were related to the Expo. Besides the Dutch Cultural Center at 800 Changde Lu, I don't know if there is any correlation.

Recent Expansions :

Art Labor 2.0

Location : 570 Yongjia Lu, Bldg. 4 near Yueyang Lu
Telephone : +86 21 3460 5331
www.artlaborgallery.com

G ArtSPACE
Location : N.694 Huai'an Lu near Changhua Lu

Telephone : +86 21 62769100
www.1918artspace.com

ifa²

Location : 57 Yongkang Lu near Xiangyang Nan Lu

Telephone : +86 21 6256 0835

www.ifa-gallery.com

Leo Gallery 374

Location : 374 Wukang Lu, near Tai'an Lu (inside Ferguson Lane complex)

Telephone : +86 21 5465 8785

www.leogallery.com.cn

Office 339
Location : 106, Building No.1, Weihai Lu No.696
Telephone : +86 21 6267 0176
www.office339.com

Studio Rouge

Location : 17 Fuzhou Lu near Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu

Telephone : +86 21 6323 0833

www.studiorouge.cn

Am I missing anyone?

On the Road : Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

Opened in July 2008, an article from C Arts Magazine describes Bangkok's first public art space:

The new visual art space is Bangkok's first large international-standard public art museum. Located in one of the city's busiest commercial districts known as Siam Square, BACC is effectively integrated into a cluster of up-market shopping malls (including Siam Discovery and Paragon), all connected by the National Stadium BTS skytrain station. Designed by Bangkok architectural firm Robert Boughey & Associates, the new Centre is housed in a twelve-floor atrium-style edifice.

...

Whereas Western art institutions of the 1950s still adhered to a purist vision of art - the museum functioning exclusively as a temple of high culture - public state-sponsored visual art spaces built nowadays in Southeast Asia pursue an altogether different agenda. In order to survive financially and secure a steady stream of visitors, they often operate simultaneously as meeting place, cultural venue and retail destination. Thus BACC, with its mall-land location, shopping centre architecture, underground multi-storey car park, and several dozen food and commercial outlets occupying the building's lower and more accessible floors (still untenanted at the time of writing), epitomizes Southeast Asia's current taste for hybrid, entertainment-oriented public spaces.

outside

inside

Mask 2 (detail), Oil on Aluminum, by Therdkiat Wangwatcharakul

coffee shop

ice cream shop

frame shop

Bangkok Art and Culture Center
Address: 939 Rama 1 Road, Wangmai, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330
Telephone: +66 02 214 6630-1
Fax: +66 02 214 6632
E-mail: bkkart@yahoo.com
www.bacc.or.th

Read full article from C Art : Contemporary Asian Art and Culture >>