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Tag Archives: Qiu Xiaofei

On Pretension

“Existential Emptiness: On pretension in art” Published in the Hong Kong Gallery Guide. Text by Robin Peckham. This phrase “existential emptiness” is a weapon, and an almost tautological one at that: does it contain any content beyond an automatic mode of self-critique? But in referring to its own posture toward its presumed object the language [...]

The Prick of Conscience: Passages in the Literary Mode

Published in Randian. Text by Robin Peckham. Literati painting is often viewed within Chinese art history as a highly restricted genre, consisting of monochromatic works of ink on paper involving natural themes interpreted through a subjective or even abstract treatment produced by amateur scholars, officials, and members of the gentry in southern China across almost [...]

Liang Yuanwei: Golden Notes

Published on ArtSlant. Text by Robin Peckham. Golden Notes: Liang Yuanwei Beijing Commune 798 Art District, Chaoyang District, Beijing, P.R.C. 30 November – 13 January 51 sqm #15: Liang Yuanwei Taikang Space Red No.1-B2, Caochangdi, Chaoyang District, Beijing, P.R.C. 4 December – 18 December Liang Yuanwei is, by all accounts, one of the most Chinese [...]

Flat and Open: New directions in art from Beijing

Published in Badges, the magazine of the Jockey Club. Text by Robin Peckham. Through long, cold winters and surrounded by a public that largely cares little for the vagaries of contemporary art, a core group of Beijing artists, active for approximately a decade, is now changing the way we look at global Chinese culture–not to [...]

Of Paintings Poignant and Precise

First published on ArtSlant. Text by Robin Peckham. Point of No Return: A Qiu Xiaofei Solo Exhibition Boers-Li Gallery D-Park, 798, Chaoyang District, 100015 Beijing, China September 4, 2010 – October 10, 2010 Though Qiu Xiaofei was, for a certain period of time, taken by many as a simple painter of nostalgic scenes from the [...]

Popular Music in Contemporary Art, or, adolescents groping in the dark

First published in Randian. Text by Robin Peckham. During a recent debate over sound art that seemed to grip several quarters of the Hong Kong art world for the better part of the summer of 2010, one of the recurring topics of discussion was the relationship between art and music. Dominated by figures emerging from [...]

Chinese Auctions, early 2010

First published on Artnet. Text by Robin Peckham. Although the major media outlets, particularly within China, have chosen to present the first half of 2010 as a moment of emergence for Chinese collectors on the international stage, this is only half the picture: the auction results tell a rather different story. From Beijing to Hong [...]

New Directions for the Old Medium

First published on ArtSlant. Text by Robin Peckham. Fresh Eyes 2010 He Xiangning Art Museum Shennan Road, Overseas Chinese Town Nanshan District, Shenzhen, China July 18, 2010 – September 12, 2010 Painting in China has been in crisis since shortly before the boom at auction that rocketed artists with little sense for the terms of [...]

New Attitude of Image

Text by Robin Peckham Exhibition runs through 5 December 2009 Tang Contemporary (Gate No. 2, 798 Art District, Beijing) As usual with such group shows in Beijing, it is unclear what exactly Tang Contemporary and curator Wei Xing attempt to do with their new exhibition “The New Attitude of Image” The incoherent but indubitably grandiose [...]