Posts tagged art
Four Beijing Art Festivals and Fairs Happening Now
Apr 17th
These are a busy couple of weeks for the arts in Beijing. From this past Wednesday to next weekend, the city will host no fewer than four major visual and performing arts festivals and fairs.
Wednesday, April 15 to Sunday, April 19
7:30 p.m. each night
Oriental Pioneer Theater
80 RMB (student price 40 RMB) per night
LDTX, Beijing’s biggest modern dance group, presents 50 original works over the course of the festival. The program is different every night.
Order tickets online here.
Thursday, April 16 to Sunday, April 19
10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day but Sunday, which is 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Agricultural Exhibition Center
50 RMB per day
Contemporary art galleries from all over the world come to Beijing to promote themselves. Includes special project exhibitions such as Mapping Asia.
Friday, April 17 to Tuesday, May 3
Venues and times vary
Fat Art is a multimedia festival involving sight, sound and film surrounding a “fat” theme. It includes an exhibition at Today Art Museum that lasts until May 13.
Sunday, April 26 to Thursday, April 30
Agricultural Exhibition Center
10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day but Thursday, which is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Art Beijing also has galleries visiting from all over the world. Its main difference from China International Gallery Exposition is its scope of activities that includes art education and forum discussions.
To learn about future Chinese contemporary art events, read the Red Box Review.
Interning in the Arts
Jan 8th
I thought it was worth a post to summarize my experience interning in the arts. Many people have false perceptions of art internships, and I have more experience than I probably should with interning. Additionally, I have interned for arts organizations that are government-owned, nonprofit, and private small businesses, ranging from the performing and visual arts to art consulting.
My four art internships have been, in chronological order:
Marketing and Public Relations Intern for Hult Center for the Performing Arts
Marketing and Public Relations Intern for Seattle Theatre Group
Public Relations Intern for Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts (DIVA)
Project Management Intern at H!TANG & China Creative Connections
The Hult Center for the Performing Arts
I inquired about the internship during the spring of my freshman year, but had to wait until the fall of my junior year to start because the internship program was so competitive and established. This is my only internship to date where I got to assemble and send out electronic newsletters and write advertisements. The Hult Center has a small staff, with no education or development department, and a marketing department of a marketing manager plus a part-time marketing assistant and one or two part-time interns. The City of Eugene operates it.
Seattle Theatre Group
Seattle Theatre Group was like the Hult Center on a larger scale, and nonprofit instead of government-owned. It is a rich nonprofit – if that’s even possible – with the same operating budget as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and only two interns in a staff of 52, both of whom are paid a modest stipend. The marketing department included four staff plus the two part-time interns. This has been my only internship with a public relations manager on staff, who was also my supervisor. I had similar duties to those at the Hult Center, with more of a public relations focus and less supervision. An interesting tidbit about this internship is while the theaters Seattle Theatre Group operates, The Paramount and The Moore, are quite famous within the area, almost no one outside the arts recognizes the Seattle Theatre Group brand.
Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts (DIVA)
I think that DIVA is the most stereotypical art organization out of the ones I’ve interned for because it’s small and grassroots. Internships there are not competitive because DIVA relies heavily on volunteers. For this reason, interns can really customize their internship and play a meaningful role in the organization. I had very limited time to spend, and did most of my interning from home. I posted our events on Web calendars and wrote short press releases to distribute locally. I also designed our monthly gallery guide and landed media coverage from a media advisory. This internship required a lot of independence and responsibility.
H!TANG & China Creative Connections
I’ve been interning at H!TANG & CCC for two months, and I love it. It’s my first job or internship at an agency, which I’m finding is likely my professional niche because working at a small agency requires a lot of networking, one of my favorite tasks. I’m the primary point of contact for our agency on our visual art iniatives and corporate training through the arts, and I help out on various other client projects. I’m the resident English proofreader. Everything we do requires both an artist and a client, so I spend about as much or more time recruiting artists to source as I do reaching out to and communicating with clients.
What’s the point of this post? I’m hoping it’s useful to those thinking about interning in the arts, even if not at these particular sites. Also, I hope this can shed light into the variety the art industry offers and cause readers to question their stereotypes. My experience interning in the arts helped me get internships and praise from professionals outside the industry.
Where Art and Public Relations Intersect
Dec 17th
One of the most beloved instructors in my major Kelli Matthews wrote a blog post titled “What if You Don’t Have a PR Degree?” designed to give people in this situation advice on how to enter the field. I’m in the opposite situation, majoring in public relations but not working in it afterward.
At the age of 18, I decided on public relations as the particular skillset that I could bring to the arts world. In my public relations classes, I learned how to write much better than most adult Americans, even college graduates. I learned how to put together a killer PowerPoint and present it. I learned how to work in groups from the planning to executing of projects. I learned how to cold email and call people. I learned how to research efficiently and comprehensively. I learned how to network. I didn’t learn all this because I was an exceptional student; these were simply graduation requirements for everyone in the public relations sequence.
Many recent graduates complain that their classwork in college has nothing to do with their current jobs. However, I use the skills mentioned above at work at H!TANG & China Creative Connections nearly every day. Additionally, my degree in journalism with an emphasis in public relations has gained me on-the-job respect for my writing and grammar in a field where employees come from a variety of educational backgrounds, at both my current position and at the art gallery.
Arts and administration classes at the University of Oregon can also supplement public relations coursework. This department offers a certificate in Meeting and Event Management and a class called Marketing the Arts. Marketing the Arts was one of my favorite courses of college, and I used coursework in Meeting and Event Management to help me plan the 2008 University of Oregon PRSSA Regional Activity.
It’s pretty easy, even in a small market, to find internships and student leadership positions where art and public relations intersect. For me, these were:
Marketing and Public Relations Intern at Hult Center for the Performing Arts
Marketing and Public Relations Intern at Seattle Theatre Group
Public Relations Intern at Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts (DIVA)
Other UO PR students and grads who are combining arts and PR:
American expatriates in Beijing’s arts who did not major in PR but use it in their jobs:
Sarabeth Berman at LDTX
Kerry Holahan at International Festival Chorus
798 Art District Highlights – November 29, 2008
Nov 30th
My new language partner and I took a short but sweet visit to 798 yesterday in which I saw a lot of art that was inspiring enough to blog about.
Probably the most respected gallery in 798, Long March Space, is in the middle of an exhibition titled “Impossible is Nothing“, named after the famous Adidas advertising slogan related to the Olympics. This exhibition is both respectable and avante guard, consisting of a life-size part of a space shuttle that people live in while in space and a small earth, both hanging from the gallery’s largest room’s ceiling in the dark. There’s also four security camera monitors, which brings to light that people in space spend all their time on camera.
The other exhibition I hadn’t seen yet at Long March Space was “The Starving of Sudan”, an installation and video of an earlier performing inside the installation. The performance’s purpose was to recreate a famous photograph in Darfur where a vulture waits for a child to die. Seeing Chinese art on this issue was a relief as many Chinese people are extremely apathetic about Darfur, and their government plays a large role in the conflict.
Artside Beijing, a Korean company’s relatively new Beijing gallery, usually shows the most famous artists in East Asia. The gallery is currently hosting a solo exhibition by Oh Sufan, world renowned for using Western oil painting techniques to paint “modern calligraphy” as the gallery calls it. My language partner and I had a fun time identifying the occasionally legible Chinese character.
Galleria Continua, Gallery TN and Tang Contemporary Art are located right next to each other and are three of my favorites in Beijing.
Yesterday was my second visit to Galleria Continua‘s “Mumbai: A Laundry Field,” and I appreciated it even more the second time. I now understand the artist was inspired by and wanted to portray the contrast of beautiful textiles with the dreary urban landscape in Mumbai.
I discovered a new favorite artist yesterday at Gallery TN, Ren Rong. Some of his work blends cultural subject matter in a way that makes it difficult to tell from far away that he is Chinese. He also plays a lot with Chairman Mao and The Forbidden City’s iconography.
Tang Contemporary Art opened its solo “Target” exhibition yesterday, the second exhibitoin in which I’ve seen this space take advantage of its high ceiling; the first was “International Kebab.” This exhibition features a huge sculpture of Mao sharp-shooting in the same dark room as a video with portrait dimensions. His “Two Soldiers” was an excellent mirror-image oil painting, mural-like in nature.
Female Celebrity as Art Subject Matter
Nov 1st
The news that Britney Spears has psychiatric problems too severe for her to control her own finances or take a witness stand shook me. I wouldn’t call myself a fan, but because her career has coincided with my coming-of-age years, she is a symbol to me of all female celebrity. This got me thinking about celebrity and feminism in general, specifically as it relates to art with these women as subject matter.
My favorite television show and one of my four favorite art organizations both draw inspiration from Britney Spears. The South Park episode “Britney’s New Look” makes the grim case that Britney Spears was chosen at a young age as a sacrificial beautiful woman to be eventually driven crazy by a society obsessed with her. View the episode here. For Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater‘s 2007-2008 rendition of “Flowers“, which I saw last March, the prima ballerina based her character on Britney Spears. Alvin Ailey choreographed the ballet immediately after the death of Janis Joplin, who some view as another sacrificed female icon. You can listen to comments from within the dance company here.
Another interesting case study is “Paris 2008“, Jonathan Yeo‘s portrait of Paris Hilton that is a collage of pornographic magazine clippings. Damien Hirst bought the work, and Yeo offered to share the proceeds with Hilton because he thinks its unfair that she never received money for her infamous sex tape. You can also note that the artist made a portrait of President Bush out of the same media first.
Do Yeo’s actions regarding “Paris 2008″ empower women or degrade them? Are these women ridiculed as sluts and idiots because it’s somehow more okay to attach those labels to women than men? Does it take slutty and irresponsible behavior for women to become superstars in United States pop culture? These are questions I don’t have the answers to but fine art attempts to address.
Beijing’s Largest Art District’s Take on the Olympics
Aug 14th
I knew sports and entertainment public relations were similar – both involve obtaining sponsorships and managing perceptions of personalities, for starters. But I had failed to notice the direct connection the Olympics has with the arts. This is especially apparent to me, as I work in and live right by the Beijing 798 Art Zone, which has been compared to New York’s SoHo.
In terms of how this affects my daily life, my neighborhood, despite its distance from any major Olympic venues, is clad in Olympic fever. Every shop directly across the street from the 798
The entire city is flooded with tourists, my work, T Space, being no exception. It seems like every gallery in 798 but mine is presenting an Olympic-themed exhibition; however, everyone has a different take on presenting the Olympics. Galleria Continua’s response is to host “Unmoved,” which forces you to take longer than you usually would to look at works in a
And why wouldn’t they? The New York Times reported that the Olympics will bring 10,000 guests a day to 798, three times the typical number. One of my coworkers told me that half the diplomats visiting
Media coverage of 798 shortly before the Olympics:
New York Times
Have you observed any connections between art and sports? What are your thoughts on art’s relationship to the Olympics? I welcome your comments.
Chinese Art Organization’s Press Release
Jul 6th
I’ve become someone fascinated with Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, located about a five-minute walk from my work and known as the first non-profit art organization in China. Here’s a copy of its press release on changing chief curators, followed by the English version from Google Translate. The translation’s definitely not perfect, but you get the idea.
新闻稿敬请发布20080513
尤伦斯当代艺术中心首席策展人、副馆长秦思源将离职并开展他的独立策展人生涯，郭晓彦继任为中心的首席策展人
尤伦斯当代艺术中心馆长杰罗姆·桑斯宣布原UCCA副馆长兼首席策展人秦思源将离开艺术中心。从开馆至今，秦思源为这一座非营利机构提供了关键性的贡献以及努力，并且建设了完备且具高度专业的艺术团队，为艺术中心在中国的发展成功地规划了一系列的展览、艺术教育课程，以及相关的推广工作。
关于离开尤伦斯当代艺术中心的决定，秦思源表示是源于他自我个人职业规划的考虑。秦思源表示：“我希望下一步能以一个独立策展人以及艺术家的身份，与其他艺术家与艺术机构更紧密地合作……，我在UCCA的工作经验，对我是弥足珍贵的。”
新任首席策展人郭晓彦，早在尤伦斯当代艺术中心开幕之前（2007年9月），便以策展人的身份加入其中。她将为艺术中心发展成为中国当代创作发声场，发挥重要的作用。郭晓彦曾参与中国首家民间美术馆“上河美术馆”（成都）的组建和管理工作。2002年任广东美术馆“广州三年展”办公室副主任，策划人，策划、组织很多重要当代艺术展览和活动，2005年11月任第二届“广州三年展”策划人之一。2004年，郭晓彦作为助理策展人在法国里昂当代艺术馆策划 “中国年”展览。
杰罗姆·桑斯表示，尤伦斯当代艺术中心感激秦思源的卓越贡献。在他所完成工作的基础上，郭晓彦将继续大力发展艺术中心的各项艺术项目，深入进行与国际艺术领域的对话。
作为一个国际化的平台，尤伦斯当代艺术中心展示来自中国当代艺术最新创作的初衷将一直延续。在未来数月，中心的艺术计划将增加一系列与中国艺术家合作的全新项目。
尤伦斯当代艺术中心是一座非盈利的综合艺术中心，由收藏家尤伦斯夫妇出资建造，2007年11月正式开幕。艺术中心推出包括知名和年轻艺术家的展览，致力于打造一个通过教育、研究项目分享当代艺术体验的平台。
**********************************
Please press release issued 20080513
You Lunsi Chief Curator of Contemporary Art Center, Qin, deputy director of the source will carry out his resignation and an independent curator career, Guo Xiaoyan successor as the center’s chief curator
You Lunsi Contemporary Art Center curator of the UCCA杰罗姆桑斯announced that Deputy Director and Chief Curator Qin source will leave the Arts Centre. From the opening date, Qin source for a non-profit organizations that provide a crucial contribution and efforts, and building a comprehensive Juju highly professional team of art for art center in China’s development and success of planning a series of exhibitions, Arts education courses, and the related promotional efforts.
You Lunsi left on Contemporary Arts Centre’s decision, Qin said the source of self-originated from his personal career planning considerations. Qin source said: “I hope that the next step can be an independent curator and artist’s identity, with other artists and art institutions work more closely……, I UCCA of work experience, I was invaluable.”
The newly appointed Chief Curator Guo Xiaoyan, as early as You Lunsi before the opening of Contemporary Art Centre (September 2007), then to join the identity of the curator. She Arts Centre will develop into China’s contemporary creative voice market, an important role to play. Guo Xiaoyan have been involved in China’s first folk art museums “on the River Art Gallery” (Chengdu) the establishment and management. In 2002 the Guangdong Museum of Art, “the Guangzhou Triennial” deputy director of the office, planning, planning, organizing many important contemporary art exhibitions and activities, in November 2005 of the second session, “the Guangzhou Triennial” planning one. In 2004, Guo Xiaoyan as Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art in Lyon, France planning “China Year” exhibition.
杰罗姆桑斯 said, You Lunsi Contemporary Arts Centre grateful Qin’s outstanding contribution to the source. In his work done on the basis of Guo Xiaoyan will continue to vigorously develop the arts centre of the arts projects, in-depth and international artistic dialogue.
As an international platform You Lunsi Contemporary Art Center display contemporary art from China as the creative mind would have been extended. In the next few months, the center of a series of art projects will increase cooperation with the Chinese artists of the new project.
You Lunsi Contemporary Art Center is a non-profit integrated arts centre, funded by collectors You Lunsi couples construction, in November 2007 was officially opened. Arts Centre launched, including well-known young artists and the exhibitions, to create a through education, research projects to share the experience of contemporary art platform.
**********************************
Chinese Contemporary Art Links
Jul 3rd
Most of what I’ve been doing since I started my job in 798 a little over a week ago is making my way through a 12-page, single-spaced list of Web sites related to Chinese contemporary art that my boss provided me with. I’d like to share some of my favorite artists and art organizations. This likely will become a regular post topic, and maybe I’ll come up with themes, such as favorite photography. Contemporary art mavens likely are already familiar with these links.
In this post: artists Cao Fei 曹斐, Zhang Huan 張洹, Hong Hao 洪浩, Feng Jincao, and Qian Gang; art gallery 1918 ArtSpace; and the consulting business China Creative Connections.
Cao Fei 曹斐 specializes in new media, and works in a variety of visual art genres. A lot of her work is colorful and reminds me of high-fashion advertisements.
Zhang Huan 張洹 is an accomplished artist born in Beijing who lives in New York. He works in variety of media but I’m pretty sure he’s most famous for his nude performance art made during the 1990s. I saw a photograph of his performance To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain at the Seattle Art Museum last summer. His work is depressing but ingenious.
Hong Hao 洪浩 created several installations with “my things” in their titles. The image above, “My Things About Circle No. 2,” is currently my computer’s wallpaper.
Feng Jincao created a series of paintings titled “Scenery in a Chinese Dress.” I really like these, as all of them are purposefully not-quite-mirror images. Many of them look like modified Rorschach test cards.
Among other works, Qian Gang creates two-tone black-and-white silkscreens that contain cartoon-like illustration.
Organizational links:
1918 ArtSpace in Shanghai has a great Web site; you can spend hours looking at the art on there. The gallery mostly exhibits Chinese artists with a few exceptions.
China Creative Connections in Beijing, founded by an advertising executive, is a consulting firm to connect art and business through opportunities such as exhibit sponsorship and visual art buying for offices.
What are your favorite Chinese contemporary art links? Which is your favorite out of the ones in this post? Feel free to comment.
Recent Comments