Well that didn't last long. Just 46 hours after Ai Weiwei set up four live webcams around his Beijing home to commemorate the first year anniversary of his 81-day arrest, the outspoken artist was told by government authorities to take them down. more ›

"He's an artist and should have the freedom to express his artistic views... This is also the core value of Taiwan." more ›

A 6-ft tall sign spelling the words "Bye Bye Ai Weiwei" along a canal in Venice as the city's art biennale takes place has been puzzling passerbys and art critics alike. more ›

"Huang Guofu didn’t let the childhood accident that left him armless at the age of four interfere with his love for painting. Instead, he taught himself to paint with his feet at the age of 12. He recalls staying up all night at times just to practice. After his father fell ill, Guong, 18 at the time, quit school and decided to pursue painting as a profession in order to help pay for treatments. He started selling his art on the streets where some purchased his work purely out of sympathy." [Huffington Post] more ›

"I have to always to ask myself, 'How long can I last?' if I'm in extreme conditions such as jail." more ›

This weekend we got the disturbing news that a new gay bar on the Bund was raided and dozens of its patrons were detained harshly and now more bad news, we're afraid. It has hit the web that China's most outspoken artist and activist Ai Weiwei has also been detained by police, now for over 24 hrs. more ›

According to Ai Weiwei's Twitter feed, Sina's Art and Finance section recently put up a vote for Most Powerful Contemporary Artists of the Year. By far the most high-profile artist in the country, Ai Weiwei unsurprisingly sprung to the top of the list (as seen above, where Ai Weiwei is second from the left on the bottom row.) The voting option was quickly taken down by Sina and Ai Weiwei removed from the list, seen in its present form here. Voting was then allowed on a selection of art studios instead. Ai Weiwei's Three Shadows gallery, despite being listed almost last, again quickly rose to the top. Observers then watched as another studio suspiciously jumped a thousand votes up while Three Shadows dropped a few hundred right before voting ended (compare screen grabs here and here.) Scandalous, to say the least. Here's a summary from his English Twitter feed: more ›

Journalist-turned-digital-media-man Thomas Crampton speaks to Ai Weiwei, one of the most outspoken critics of the Chinese government in the art world, about social media and the impact that it's having on contemporary China. Ai Weiwei is the son of Chinese poet Ai Qing (艾青) who was denounced during the Cultural Revolution and sent to a Xinjiang labour camp. He is known most recently for the investigation of the Sichuan earthquake student casualities.
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France24 reports:

The buoyant market for Chinese contemporary art over the last few years has made millionaires in the country. But the financial crisis has led to a massive slump in demand for works.

A random internet search brought us to this kinda cool poster from artist Steve Thomas. It's a retro-futuristic advert for the World's Fair in 2474 (we guess) that celebrates Shanghai's "Five Centuries of Progress." We suppose that means the 2010 thingy we're hosting goes OK. Ironically, the Pudong skyline used to represent the future in the poster is already the old Pudong skyline. The best part: Entry to the World's Fair is only four credits. And children get in for a half credit! We can't wait until 2474. more ›

The guys from multi-disciplinary design studio Jellymon have done it again, this time they've rounded up 20-plus artists specialized in street art, streetwear, illustration, design and photography for a fun art show at The Source. more ›

NYT takes a closer look at China's female contemporary artists who deserve more attention than they are currently getting as they struggle to explore art, feminism and a changing China. (Source) more ›

Thanks to Twitter’s perpetual failures, Lu’s Fail Whale now features on t-shirts and coffee mugs while other artists create kinetic Fail Whale sculptures. more ›

Chinese art is where it's at, especially in our own city of Shanghai, says this video featuring interviews with curators at MOCA and Moganshan. The swelling popularity of the genre is evidenced by an impressive statistic — in 2004, Sotheby’s auctioned off $3 million in Chinese art, a number that increased to $70 million last year. Respect for the burgeoning art scene doesn’t just come from abroad, but from China’s own youth, who are becoming increasingly interested in artistic expression as a means of self-expression during a time that they, and the nation, are undergoing massive and accelerated change. But don't just take their word for it — get out to some of the exhibits that are in the city this month. Our picks: World Press Photo Exhibition, a stroll in Taiking Road Art Center or a trip to MOCA’s first-ever exhibition of exclusively Shanghai-based artists. World Press: Songjiang Art Museum, No. 601, Lane 900, Sanxin Road North, Songjiang District; Taiking Road Art Center: Lane 210 Taiking Lu; MOCA: Inside People's Park, next to Barbarossa. Enter near Starbucks and Shanghai Art Museum at 231 Nanjing Xi Lu, near Huangpi Lu or Xizhang Zhong Lu 人民公园 ，南京西路231号，人民广场 more ›

Scanning The Independent the other day, we came across a piece about a gloriously named singer called 萨顶顶 (Sa Ding Ding) that caught our eye. Born to a Mongolian mother and Han Chinese father, the article calls her a 'former Mongolian nomad' who is 'poised to sweep the globe' with her blend of traditional folk sounds and dance music. Intrigued, we had a hunt on Baidu's ever-reliable MP3 search engine (not that Shanghaiist condones illegal downloading of course) and found that searching for her name in characters returns quite a few results. more ›

It's been a while, but this Sunday will see a welcome return for the PAUSE collective, who will be bringing their heady mix of independent art, music, and creative stalls to everyone's favourite ex-Blue Ice hang out, The Shelter. Kicking off at 4pm down on Yong Fu Lu, there will be a bunch of inventive things to get excited about, featuring contributors from across the globe and, of course, the cream of Shanghai's arts scene. more ›