THE ART STAGE SINGAPORE 2012 COUNTDOWN 5 DAYS TO GO

WHAT TO SEE AT THE FAIR

CHEN WENLING (CHINA)

“RED BOY” SERIES

DIMENSIONS: 2.05M x 2.15M x 6.6M

PRESENTED BY ODE TO ART CONTEMPORARY (SINGAPORE, KUALA LUMPUR)

LOCATION: D4-05

Chen Wenling is recognised as one of the top ten contemporary sculptors in China today.

Born in 1969 in Anxi, a small, remote village in Fujian province, China, Chen came from humble beginnings but went on to study at the Xiamen Academy of Art and Design, and then later at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. The two main themes of Chen Wenling’s sculptures are the manifestations of extreme humanity and immaterial images in a consumptive society. Samples of his self extreme condition begins with the series of “Red Boy” (some of the pieces from these series are over 6m long), which an autobiographic work. In terms of artistic language, Chen’s recent artworks are closer to a type of surrealistic legendary language structure, like people are riding on pigs as if they were riding pre-historic mammals. Form experience is always a crucial part in Chen’s sculpture practice, so his recent works are more like an art experiment in artistic language.

WANG QINGSONG (CHINA)

PRESENTED BY LDX CONTEMPORARY ART CENTRE (BEIJING, HONG KONG)

LOCATION: C6-02

“TEMPLE” , 2011

DIMENSIONS: 1.8M X 3M

 “TEMPORARY WARD”, 2008

DIMENSIONS: 1.7M X 3M

One of China’s most highly regarded contemporary artists, Wang Qingsong was trained as a painter at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Art. He moved from painting to conceptual photography and film in the 1990s and his work has been described as from darkly humorous to having an acerbic vision of Chinese society. The international art community has quickly taken note of his signature sophisticated wit and humour, which is strongly evident in his work. His elaborate large-scale photography scenes often times involve dozens of models on enormous stages and make reference to classic and modern Chinese art.

 RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA (THAILAND)

“UNTITLED 2008-2011 (THE MAP OF THE LAND OF FEELING)

DIMENSIONS: 0.91M X 25.6M
PRESENTED BY IKKAN ART GALLERY (SINGAPORE)

LOCATION: PA-A04

The internationally-renowned New York-based artist Rirkrit Tiravanija was born to Thai parents (his father was a diplomat) in Buenos Aires, Argentina and has lived in cities all over the world. This painting is the chronicle of Tiravanija’s last 20 years, and took him over three years to complete (the painting was finished in April 2011). It features reproductions of the artist’s passport pages that span two decades from 1988 to 2008 covering places he had visited, seen and experienced. The project is a three-part scroll, 0.91m (3ft) high and totaling 25.6M (84ft) in length, utilising a combination of techniques including screenprint, offset lithography, and inkjet print. The passports run as a central band through each of the three scrolls and underlay or overlap an assortment of images including: City maps, archaeological and architectural sites, mazes, time zones, illustrations of urban flow, notebook pages and recipes.

 NEO RAUCH (GERMANY)

PRESENTED BY GALERIE EIGEN + ART (LEIPZIG,. BERLIN)

LOCATION: D3-01

Influenced by social realism, Neo Rauch is one of the most influential artists of his generation. Over the last quarter century, he has emerged as one of the key individuals in the resurgence of German figurative painting. Rauch studied at the Leipzig University of Graphics and Book art with Arno Rink and has been an honorary professor there since 2009. His paintings often reflect a cross between his personal history and the politics of industrial alienation. He lives in Leipzig, Germany, and works as the principal artist of the new Leipzig School.