October 2008

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All eyes may be on Beijing this summer, but what might be described as – at best – the ambivalence felt by many contemporary Chinese artists about their country’s explosive urban development – as well as neglect – in recent years can be seen in work that is now exhibited around the globe.

In London, for example, dealers Rossi & Rossi are hosting the first solo show outside China of the Beijing-based photographer Zhou Jun (16 Clifford Street, W1; 7-29 August). Zhou Jun is drawn to building sites. He has developed a distinctive visual language in which elements within his black-and-white images, usually the scaffolding, are highlighted in red. One of the 15 or so photographs on show – and on offer in editions of 10 – documents the new national sports stadium known as the Bird’s Nest, in effect the symbol of the forthcoming Olympics (Fig. 1), during construction in 2006. As to the artist’s meaning, the viewer can decide for themselves. In China, red is the colour of ceremony and fortune, of radical socialism and revolutionary communism and as such is associated with political power – as well as bloodshed and social turmoil. Prices range from £5,000 to £10,000.

Rossi & Rossi’s one-man show devoted to the Himalayan artist Tsering Nyandak (3 July-1 August), one of the most sensitive artists working in Lhasa and not usually overtly political, also touches on the theme of urban development and enforced loss. Cement (Fig. 2), depicting a prostrate figure pinned down by the tremendous weight of a concrete block, refers to the urbanisation of a new area at Amdo, where the government moved nomads into concrete houses. The nomads could no longer make their traditional pilgrimages, or graze their animals on the grasslands. Their traditional way of life was destroyed in one blow. Prices range from £5,000 to £10,000.

He Hong We is perhaps best known for paintings documenting the Asian Sars crisis in 2003 but in a show presented by Oc-Eo Art at Gallery 27 in Cork Street – his first in London (until 12 July) – we find him returning to Inner Mongolia and to the landscape and memories of his childhood. He found his hometown run down and desolate, and with it a way of life had also been lost. Prices range from £2,500 to £7,500, 10% of which will be donated to the China Earthquake Appeal.

1 Bird’s Nest No. 3 by Zhou (b. 1955), 2006, Photograph, 120 x 186 cm, at Rossi & Rossi Gallery, London (7-29 August). Enquiries: +44 (0)20 7734 6487

2 Cement by Tsering Nyandak (b. 1974), 2008. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 128 x 128 cm, at Rossi & Rossi Gallery, London (3 July-1 August). Enquiries: +44 (0)20 7734 6487

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