Spring 2008: Retrospectives and Transformations
House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective
March 22 – June 1, 2008
Artist: Huang Yong Ping
Curator: Philippe Vergne, Walker Art Center
Beijing presentation organized by UCCA Curator David Spalding
Stray Alchemists
April 12 – July 13, 2008
Artists: Matt Bryans, Amy Granat (including collaborations with Emily Sundblad and C. Spencer Yeh), Lim Tzay Chuen, Takeshi Murata, Robin Rhode and Sterling Ruby
Initiated by UCCA International Curator Kate Fowle
Spring is a season of alchemy at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing, with the presentation of two new shows: the first comprehensive retrospective of Huang Yong Ping to be presented in China, and UCCA’s first international group exhibition, comprised of six artists from around the world who are reshaping the landscape of contemporary art.
Long interested in the transformation of materials and concepts, Huang Yong Ping’s artistic processes always result in surprising metamorphoses. Throughout House of Oracles, Huang changes the nature of historical or contemporary objects in order to question generally accepted ideas. “This ambitious exhibition presents a retrospective of one of the most important Chinese contemporary artists on the international scene,” says UCCA Director Jérôme Sans. “It allows the visitor to embrace the entire extent of his exceptionally diverse formal vocabulary, with influences ranging from Dada to Chinese numerology.” At the same time, the six artists in Stray Alchemists are all scrutinizing their own artistic practices to wring gold out of everyday materials and chance associations. “Equally inspired by films, books, music and the media as by their personal interactions and environments, the artists work across art forms, adapting established production and presentation methods to experiment with materials and play with scale, dramatic narrative, and the formal languages of art and architecture,” Jérôme Sans observes.
House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective
The first retrospective of this Chinese-born, Paris-based artist originated at the Walker Art Center, and was shown at Mass MoCa and the Vancouver Art Gallery before traveling to its final venue at UCCA in Beijing. House of Oracles showcases the most representative works by Huang Yong Ping from 1985 to the present. Navigating the divide between East and West, tradition and the avant-garde, the exhibition’s presentation at UCCA–the only Asian stop on its tour–marks the first ever large-scale exhibition in China of this major figure in Chinese contemporary art. House of Oracles was conceived as a “comprehensive work of art,” a singular, immersive sculptural environment. The exhibition was designed by Huang as a metaphorical–and sometimes literal–journey through the “belly of the beast.”
Stray Alchemists
UCCA’s first international exhibition introduces six artists from Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia whose works–spanning from sculpture and installation, to performance, collage, drawing, photography and video–are breathing new life into the contemporary art world. As the show’s title suggests, the artists are in the process of transforming how the mediums in which they work are typically understood, letting material processes influence the outcomes of their experiments. Originated by UCCA, the exhibition marks the first comprehensive overview of each artist’s practice in China. Stray Alchemists will include several new works produced specifically for the exhibition, as well as one-off performances and musical events by the participating artists. While only in their 30’s, all six artists have an ever-growing presence in major venues and exhibitions around the world, including the current Whitney Biennial, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Hayward Gallery in London.
UCCA is a non-profit, comprehensive art center founded in Beijing by collectors Guy and Myriam Ullens in November 2007. UCCA presents exhibitions of established and emerging artists and develops a trusted platform to share knowledge through education and research.
Ullens Center for Contemporary Art
798 Art District,No.4 Jiuxianqiao Lu,
P.O. Box 8503, Chaoyang District, Beijing
P.R.China 100015
Tel: +86 10 8459 9269
Fax: +86 10 6431 4867
Web: www.ucca.org.cn
