Oriental VisArt and the 42nd annual Art Basel

Art Basel, Switzerland’s premier international Art Fair, came to a close this past Sunday, 19 June, 2011. Often referred to as “the Olympics of the art world”, art lovers, collectors, and galleriests from all over the globe were treated to countless different works and presentations at this summer event. Said to have set the record for highest attendance in its history, this year’s Art Basel featured over 300 different galleries and more than 2,500 different Artists.

This year’s Art Basel not only broke records in terms of attendance, but in terms of expectations from majority of the exhibitors. Expectations of the vast majority of exhibitors were far exceeded with the event. Most were pleased to report great contacts and sales had been made to benefit the future of their programmes.

Art Basel is broken down into a different divisions, specialising in different types of works from different Artists. Art Unlimited featured 62 different works, some created specifically for Art Basel. Art Statements featured 27 young Artists from across the globe and Art Parcours, where specific works and performances were held was also a major draw.

Oriental VisArt spent the week in Basel taking in the sites and sounds of this fabulous event. Below are pictures of the great experience. Please enjoy, and hope to see you there next year!

 

Art Parcours 'Ai Weiwei'

Gabriel Orozco, 'Fly stamp collection', chromogenic print, 16 x 20 inches, 2010

Art Unlimited

Galeria Continua

Jaume Plensa, 'The three graces', painted stainless steel, three parts, 203 x 137 x 134cm, Galerie Lelong

Kohei Nawa, 'Polygon-Double-Deer 2', mixed media, 159.3 x 80.3 x 63.2cm, 2011, SCAI the Bath House

Main hall view

Main hall view

Marijke van Warmerdam, 'Up-convolution', acrylic paint, ink jet print on canvas, 2009, Annet Gelink Gallery

Ron Mueck, 'Youth', silicone, polyurethane, steel, synthetic hair, fabric, 107 x 40 x 40cm, 2009, Hause & Wirth

Scope Basel view

Scope Basel view, Kashay Hildebrand Gallery

Sooja Kim, 'To breathe-A mirrow woman', duraclear photographic print in light box, 119 x 89 x 10cm, 2006-2008

Team Gallery

U Ram Choe, 'Winged Tree of God', metalic material, machinery, electronic devices, 79 x 112 x 46cm, 2011, SCAI the Bath House

White Cube

Zhang Ding, 'Next', installation, 300 x 280 x 260cm, 2010, ShangArt

Art scenes in Beijing

I (Kayla) and the General Manager (Janis) went to Beijing 5 – 10 April. What we first said was ‘Wow’ when we arrived at the airport. Things are huge and people are so energetic. It was definitely too short to see even Art scenes there. Today I’m going to briefly talk about 798 Art District, Chaochangdi Village and Sonzhuang Village.

798 Art District is the most famous Art Zone in Beijing. There are the zone A, B, C, D and E and we spent so much time on finding some places as the information on the maps was often wrong. We got to know the reason why. Some galleries move into a new place quite often so that some maps cannot be corrected every time.

We visited many galleries for two days and where we most liked were New Age Gallery, Photo Gallery, Pifo Gallery, Gallery TN, 3181 Cool Gallery, Star Gallery and Yan Club Arts Centre. Some Galleries present well-known Artists but many are concentrating on new generation. It was good to catch local trends and see some new works from new Artists. We had an opportunity to visit Gao Brother’s studio with Ms. Melanie Ouyang Lum who is the owner of ML Art Source in Beijing. She helped us a lot to find some places and gave us great advice of Chinese Contemporary Arts. She is enthusiastic to promote Chinese Contemporary Arts and that encouraged us a lot as well.

Chaochangdi Village is located near 798 Art District but the Galleries have bigger size space so that we could see more installations and video arts there. Established galleries and foreign Galleries are located there so that Artists are also more established compared to 798 Art District. We enjoyed the group show at the Platform China. One thing that was very inconvenient was that there are no maps or directions in the village. Without a local person you would spend much time on finding a place as it is a huge area.

Songzhuang Village has about 3,000 artists’ studios and about 100 foreign Artists work from there. We visited only about 10 studios due to our time limit. This place seems to be mixed with different standards of Artists and different age groups. Many places were under construction and the same brick houses were impressive. I would like to visit during the Songzhuang Art Festival in Sept 2010.

Overall, time was too short- as you can imagine how Beijing is big!! It was more to explore Chinese Contemporary Arts and meet local Artists so I think that we could do everything much easier next time.

Entrance of 798 Art District

798 Art District

From Chaochangdi (Platform Gallery)

Group show ‘Jungle’ at Platform Gallery

Installation by famed Architect ‘Ma Yansong’ and Danish-Icelandic Artist ‘Olafur Eliasson’: UCCA