Fang Lijun
Our Future
Until October 12
Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art
798 Art District, No 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu
Chaoyang district
Beijing
T: 86 10 8610 8706
Despite the futuristic implications of its title, the new show at Ullens is well grounded in the past. 'Our Future' is held in conjunction with dazzling new site-specific works - notably an intimate, completely cushioned surround-installation by Beijing artist Yin Xiuzhen. But the real news here is that Guy and Miriam Ullens are exhibiting a generous part of their Chinese contemporary art collection - with 60 artists presenting 97 works - giving local audiences an opportunity to see major works for the first time.
To meet demand, artists here are increasingly their use of assistants to pump out assembly-line style canvasses. That's why the early paintings in this show by, among others, Zhang Xiaogang, Feng Zhengjie, and Yue Minjun are so refreshing. Sculpture here is well represented with work by Sui Jianguo - a severed arm decked in a Mao suit, several meters in length, recalls the collapse of socialist ideals in an age obsessed with buying things. To see the main exhibition hall, visitors step through and slide down Wang Du's Time Tunnel - a winding beast of newspapers and television monitors broadcasting television stations from China and around the world. This substantial show is decidedly more jazzed-up - more polished and less academic - than the Centre's inaugural exhibition last November.
Li Zhanyang
Li Zhanyang
Until August 24
Galerie Urs Meile
No 104, Caochangdi, Chaoyang district
Beijing
T: 86 10 6433 3393
Entitled 'Rent - Rent Collection Yard', Li Zhanyang's solo exhibition suggests a rampant arrogance in the Chinese art world. 114 sculptures are on show here, and most of the individual sculptures depict major figures from the local art scene. Artist Ai Weiwei - or his likeness, rather - steals the show. In one of the sculpture groups, Ai is depicted here as a landlord (a social class that fell out of favor after Mao took power in 1949). He reclines here in comfortable decadence as gallerists and collectors - Tang Xin, Lin Suling and Livia Gnos - prepare his footbath, give him a manicure and suckle his fingers. Other appearances come from the late Harold Szeeman, uber-collector Uli Sigg, former Basel director Sam Keller, critic godfathers Li Xianting and Gao Minglu. Even Joseph Beuys and Mao Zedong put in a cameo. Like many insider jokes, this one is frustrating for those who aren't familiar with the references and the faces. But provocative if at times nauseating scenarios will keep even the uninitiated entertained - as when museum director Fan Di'an curmudgeons sculptor Sui Jianguo with his bayonet in a group called 'Raping'.
Cai Guo-Qiang, Footprints of History: Fireworks Project for the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing
Cai Guo-Qiang Retrospective: I Want to Believe
Until 2 September
National Art Museum of China
1 Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng district
Beijing
T: 86 10 6401 2252 / 7076
News has surfaced that Cai's fireworks spectacular display at the Olympic opening ceremony relied on digital graphics, but that hasn't put on a damper on his popularity here. The 50-year-old artist returned to his native Fujian province last week to create a 33-meter gunpowder installation work. His retrospective at the National Art Museum was not up at the time of this writing, but it will be interesting to see how the artist adapts to the demands of the NAMOC. The building is squarely built in the Soviet-Socialist style prevalent in Beijing during the 1950s - decidedly less curvaceous than the central rotunda at the Guggenheim. Cai got three months at the Guggenheim to wow New York audiences. Here in Beijing, he's been given a whopping two weeks - how's that for a hometown reception?
Douglas Gordon, 'Self-Portrait as Kurt Cobain, as Andy Warhol, as Myra Hindley, as Marilyn Monroe', 1996
Douglas Gordon
Until 9 September
Do Art Beijing
261 Caochangdi, Chaoyang district
Beijing
T: 86 10 8457 4550
Most galleries are showing only Chinese artists during what's been called the 'Green' Olympics. As patriotism flies high - trees outnumber national flags, but only just - Douglas Gordon is an exception. The Turner Prize-winning UK artist, 42, still keeps us close to the spirit of the Games with a mesmerizing two-channel video on French-Algerian footballer, Zenedine Zidane - set to a soundtrack from Glasgow-based rock band, Mogwai. Gordon also presents painting and photography, including his photographic 'Self-Portrait as Kurt Cobain, as Andy Warhol, as Myra Hindley, as Marilyn Monroe' - as uncanny in 2008 as it was in 1996. Viewers familiar with Gordon will find little to surprise them, but the effort is cause for celebration as it marks Gordon's first solo exhibition in Asia.
Shen Shaomin, 'Bonsai No. 34'
Beyond Reminiscence
Until September 28
BCA (Legation Quarter)
23 Qianmen Dongdajie, Dongcheng district
Beijing
T: 86 10 6559 8008 / 5285
Group shows like this one - that examine the presence of traditional art practice in Chinese contemporary art - are almost a dime a dozen. Most of the works here are familiar for those concerned with this topic, and for many Chinese artists, it is perpetual thorn in their side. Shen Shaomin presents his bonsai trees that have been unnaturally pressed and shaped by various metals: the trees look like they're in pain. Shi Jinsong's pine trees are similar in that the trunks and limbs are held together by nuts and bolts. Bai Yiluo, another familiar face here in Beijing, provides his well-known digital works that imitate calligraphy - although the Chinese characters themselves are composed of insects, not ink. One starts to notice that many of the same artists are getting grouped together - for instance Shen Shaomin, Shi Jinsong and Bai Yiluo - with shows that examine traditional elements in contemporary Chinese art. But we were pleasantly surprised with Zheng Zaidong, now over 50, and his oils on canvas that feature a silhouetted figure praying before a stone. The background is dark blue and stones lie in the foreground. The brushwork itself is thin, pale and ghostly. The gallery's location in the former American Legation during the Qing Dynasty - on the southeast corner of Tiaanmen Square - provides a welcome change from the Bauhaus factory architecture in Dashanzi, the city's main art district.
Stacey Duff
Stacey Duff is Saatchi Online magazine's China correspondent and Time Out Beijing's art editor.
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