Results tagged “shanghaibiennale”

Last Friday, Shanghaiist attended a conference which was, for all intents and purposes, about how to push products to the Chinese populace and maximize profits in this gold rush. Weasely marketing types abounded, frantically and forcibly pelleting their business cards upon us whilst spewing their “bottom-line is king” rhetoric. Every other word out of their mouths was either ‘opportunity’, ‘growth’, ‘potential’ or ‘profit’. Scary stuff.

Every couple of years, Shanghai's art and culture scene comes alive as a slew of exhibitions are organized in tandem with the Shanghai Biennale, arguably the biggest art event in the city. And every couple of years, Shanghaiist is disappointed by the various offerings. Shanghai never claimed to be the cultural center of China but one would think out of all the events and exhibitions this fall, something would get Shanghaiist excited. Instead, we can sum up this fall's art events with one word: Boring!

We know we are a bit late on this, but the Shanghai Biennale will be going on until November 4, so you still have time. The following are our observations from one day spent at the Shanghai Art Museum last week. We accompanied a friend who is into design to the opening of this Biennale, themed HyperDesign. It features more than 100 artworks by 93 groups of artists from 23 countries and regions.

The two photos above are from Shanghai. The second, we think, is Shanghai Railway Station. Barbieri's work comes to our city as part of the Shanghai Biennale and the Year of Italy in China. More Biennale events are listed here.

This weekend, Shanghaiist went to the Bund area and scoped out a couple of galleries. First stop was Contrasts Gallery on Sichuan Zhong Lu. The ultra-modern space is housed on the fifth floor of a run-down heritage building (providing the "contrast" of the gallery's namesake) and shows work that leans more towards design than fine art. The current exhibition features the sculptures of Luo Xu, whose work Shanghaiist had never seen before this weekend and probably will never see again (consciously, at least). It's a shame when a great space like Constrasts Gallery has is wasted on mediocre work like Luo Xu's. Most of his sculptures, which are made to resemble dying leaves, are cold, impassive blobs that give no indication of the emotions that the leaves are supposed to represent. Then there was the piece called "Bathtub", which is indeed a large bathtub ... but one that is formed from a woman's naughty bits. We would call it clever if it weren't so tacky ... and there wasn't a woman's leg daintily arching above to make the showerhead. Cute, but cute vaginas aren't really our thing.