Sneak Peek of Sotheby’s Hong Kong Spring Sales

Beijinger’s will be getting a sneak peek of some of the items up for sale in the upcoming Sotheby’s Contemporary Asian Art Spring Sale. A travelling exhibition of some of the works for sale will tour Asia  before returning to HK for auction on April 2. Unsurprisingly, Zhang Xiaogang will be headlining with Big Family: Family No. 2, part of his famed Bloodline series, up for an estimated 25-35 million HKD. Other confirmed artists include Wang Guangyi, Liu Wei, Fang Lijun, and it is also nice to see a new section with work from emerging artists like Jia Aili being included. Jia’s haunting large scale landscapes are fast earning him an international reputation and prices to match.

Jia Aili Serbonian Bog-2 150x169cm oil on canvas 2007 platformchina.org

See here for info on Jia Aili’s Australian visit in 2010 and an SBS interview discussing his work.

ACYPI Sydney #2: Mapping the Opportunity Landscape in the Asian Century

Australia China Young Professionals Initiative Sydney

Proudly presents
MAPPING THE OPPORTUNITY LANDSCAPE IN THE ASIAN CENTURY
with Guest Speaker Heather Ridout

Presented in association with the Australia China Business Council
22 February 2012
6.30pm
Australia China Business Council

Shanghai Room
Level 13 The Gateway
1 Macquarie Place
Sydney NSW 2000

Register here

Join us for an evening of discussion and Q&A on the future of the Australia-China economic relationship

With Heather Ridout, Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Group & newly appointed Board Member of the Reserve Bank of Australia, in conversation with Christian Edwards, Senior Correspondent at Xinhua Daily News

In 2011 Heather Ridout was rated #9 in the Australian Financial Review’s annual ‘Covert Power’ list, and is widely recognised as one of Australia’s most influential and highest profile business leaders. Heather has been with the AIG and its predecessor, the Metal Trades Industry Association, for over 25 years. In that time she has become one of the most respected voices of the business sector and a leading figure in Australia’s public policy debate, with particular interest in the fields of economic policy, industry innovation, and education and training.

In April, Heather leaves Ai Group and will take up position as the fourth woman ever to be appointed to the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia. Heather’s other current appointments include Member of the Prime Minister’s Taskforce on Manufacturing and Member of the Federal Government’s Business Roundtable on Climate Change.

Entrance fee payable at door (cash only) $15/$10 for ACBC members (includes refreshments)

More info and register here

Beijing’s music underground rocks Carriageworks in Sound Kapital

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sound Kapital, Creative Asia’s first major production for 2012, and the largest showcase of Beijing rock to hit Australian shores yet, went off with a bang last week at Carriageworks in Redfern. The night began with an artist talk by Matthew Niederhauser, photographer and author of the acclaimed photo work Sound Kapital: a visual documentary of the explosive underground music scene in Beijing. Matthew spent 7 years documenting the emerging local rock scene at iconic underground music venue D-22 in the university district of Beijing, which is also the home of China’s largest indie record label, Maybe Mars.

The main event of the night then kicked off with live performances by three of China’s hottest indie bands; Nova Heart, AV Okubo and Xiao He, staged alongside projections of iconic images of Beijing’s music scene by photographer Matthew Niederhauser, and Bay 17 was rapidly transformed into the heaving depths of Beijing’s underground music clubs. Audiences loved it,  even managing to get a rowdy moshpit going in Carriageworks (perhaps a first?) to the beats of Nova Heart and AV Okubo. Check out SBS video of the night here:

SBS Mandarin News Australia: Sound Kapital 3 Feb 2012

And music review of Sound Kapital from AU Review here: 

Sound Kapital was presented by Carriageworks and Creative Asia, and was an associated event of the City of Sydney Chinese New Year Festival. Thanks to Maybe Mars, Matthew Niederhauser, Shaun Tenzenmen, AV Okubo, Nova Heart, FakeMusicMedia, and Xiao He for their participation and support.

SOUND KAPITAL: SPEND AN EVENING IN BEIJING’S MUSIC UNDERGROUND

Carriageworks and Creative Asia Present

SOUND KAPITAL

3 Feb 2011

Discover Beijing’s seething music underground in this one night only special event at Carriageworks

An associated event of the City of Sydney Chinese New Year Festival

Projections by Matthew Niederhauser
Live Performances by Nova Heart, AV Okubo and Xiao He

Artist talk with Matthew Niederhauser 6pm FREE
Live performance 8pm $25

BOOKINGS:
www.carriageworks.com.au or 1300 723 038

DOWNLOAD MEDIA RELEASE

Cool China arts blogs: Part I

The China cultural blogosphere is a prolific and fascinating place – and one in which you can disappear for hours as one discovery leads to another, much like Alice upon discovering a rabbit hole… After spending a few too many hours down that hole yesterday, I thought I would share with you a few of my favourite finds for the latest news in China visual arts (these for English readers – Chinese ones coming in the next post)

Randian http://www.randian-online.com/en/home.html

Randian 燃点 is China’s online magazine for critical culture. Launched in 2010, Randian 燃点 is owned and run by its editorial board. They seek to promote independent cultural debate in China and to foster intellectual exchange between China and the rest of the world. This means independent commentary on art, artists, exhibitions and galleries, as well as video, film, poetry, architecture, design. (Bilingual)

Iona Whittaker http://www.ionawhittaker.com/

Arts writer and editor Iona is a friend of mine with her finger very much on the pulse of the local Beijing visual art scene. Her blog features art reviews and writings also published in major arts publications including Art Review, Frieze online, Artforum online, LEAP, Art Asia Pacific, The Art Newspaper, Artinfo online, ArtSlant and ArtQuest. (English only)

Philip Tinari: http://philtinari.com/

Philip Tinari (b. 1979) is founding editor and acting publisher of LEAP, The International Art Magazine of Contemporary China, based in Beijing. Since 2007, he has run the publishing imprint, editorial office, and translation studio Office for Discourse Engineering. Tinari is a contributing editor to Artforum and adjunct professor in the College of Humanities at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. His self named blog covers visual art and social commentary in insightful and often very humorous ways.

Internet subculture: the wittiest space in China

Great article in the NY Times recently on China’s contraversial internet humour and subculture: read more here.

These satirical videos by Chinese animator Pi San went viral online, the first of the series reaching 3 million viewers in the first day it was released:

Carsick Cars hit town!

BIG news for anyone who knows anything of China’s underground music scene:

Beijing’s hottest indie rock band are coming to Sydney! As part of their 3 city Australia Tour this November, Carsick Cars will be playing at FBi Social next Thursday Nov 3: See here for gig details
These guys are iconic leaders in China’s rapidly developing and wildly innovative music scene – their name is synonymous with cool for a whole generation of young Chinese. Find out why…

See poster below for full tour dates and details: