What's on
Love of nature
Chinese artist Tong Yixin and French artist Suzanne Husky both work with a cross-disciplinary background. The former artist studied geology and the latter once lectured on landscape history and ethnobotany at universities. Their experiences have allowed their work to provide an extensive vision on the interaction between ecology and art, for which they won the 2021 Jonathan KS Choi Foundation Contemporary Art Prize. The works are now on show at Environnement mon amour, running through July 3, at Today Art Museum. Tong's works, covering paintings, videos, light installations and poetry, center on his examination of languages, non-artificial intelligence and wildlife in urban areas. Beavers often appear in Husky's works, in which the animal is depicted as a great engineer in the ecosystem.
10 am-6 pm, closed on Mondays. 32 Baiziwan Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-5876-0600.
Chairs, desks as art
"I believe our work is done for discovering what the future is for us. Doing the work I do, I allow the future to become the present. And then in that moment, we do something that is very innovative," says Gaetano Pesce, the Italian artist who has worked with architecture, interior and exterior designs and urban planning over the past six decades. Gaetano Pesce: Nobody's Perfect, an ongoing exhibition at the Today Art Museum in Beijing, reviews his creation since the 1960s. The audience will see some of the most renowned examples in Pesce's work, including chairs, desks, lamps and cabinets. There are also manuscripts, images and documents to lead viewers into the whimsical world Pesce has constructed. The exhibition shows his enthusiastic exploration of a variety of materials, especially newly invented ones. He experiments with them to give each product of his designs a color or shape and texture. The exhibition ends on June 30.
10 am-6 pm, closed on Mondays. 32 Baiziwan Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-5876-0600.
Return to roots
Luo Zhongli garnered wide notice in the early 1980s for his monumental oil work Father, which depicts the sunbathed, wrinkled face of a farmer in Sichuan province, Luo's native place, where he lives and works. The painting created deep resonance among viewers as the work symbolizes the hardships the older generations endured for the benefit of their families. Father, one of the most popular pieces in the collection of the National Art Museum of China, has defined Luo's career since. Back to the Beginning, an exhibition curated by Cui Cancan and running at Tang Contemporary Art in Beijing, charts Luo's work since the 1960s. Running through July 18, it gathers some 200 works presented in 10 groups, including a rare view of the preparatory drawings for Father, to present the evolution of individuals and collectives amid social changes.
D06& B01, 798 Art Zone, 2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-5978-9610.
Good wishes
Mythological creatures and animals in the real world have been recurring motifs in traditional Chinese culture. People in older times chose or invented these images to express a respect of nature. The implications being embodied in those creatures have evolved and greatly enriched to reflect the advance of human society, and they are still an integral part of modern life. Auspicious Creatures, Continuous Prosperity, a new exhibition now on at Shenyang Palace Museum through Sept 15, addresses this unique aspect of Chinese culture. On show are works of arts and crafts that once adorned the everyday life of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) imperial court but are now in the museum's collection. Demonstrating the high aesthetics and workmanship of the time, the objects present imperial superiority, define social hierarchy, and express good wishes.
8:30 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays.171 Shenyang Road, Shenhe district, Shenyang, Liaoning province. 024-2484-3001.
