This week: Four events featuring artists and a musician from China and Taiwan who live in New York and a lecture by Cao Fei. Her mid-career retrospective at MoMA PS1 closes this week. Go or go again, and set aside at least an hour to watch her videos attentively.
Coming up:
September 2 – A talk and performance about the music of the Paiwan and Rukai aboriginal peoples of Taiwan by pianist Joy Chi Wang
September 3 – 11 – The critically acclaimed Kaili Blues 《路边野餐》 screens at Museum of the Moving Image.
September 10 – Renwen Society’s talk on writer and poet Yu Dafu (郁达夫)
September 12 – Curator Melissa Walt talks about Asia Society’s new exhibition dedicated to Chinese-French artist Zao Wou-ki (赵无极), which opens September 8
September 15 – Mid-Autumn Festival
September 17 – Modern Sky Festival
We add talks, films, performances, exhibitions, featuring or relating to Chinese, Taiwanese, diasporic artists and topics to our event and ongoing exhibition calendars as we learn of them.
We post frequently on our Facebook page. So check the page for links we share and get a heads up on events before we include them in these weekly posts. Take a look also at our Instagram page.
If you’re interested in contributing to Beyond Chinatown, whether writing an article, contributing photos or artwork to be featured with our weekly events and exhibitions listing, letting us know about an event, send an email to beyondchinatown@gmail.com.
THIS WEEK’S EVENTS
1) A Museum Show: Hai-Hsin Huang Solo Exhibition Opening Reception – We’ve been looking forward to this show in which Huang shows us her skewed view of museum going. See below for the exhibition description.
Friday, August 26, 6 PM
Gallery 456, 456 Broadway
Free
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2) Overfitting – Playing with the “borders” between the outside and the inside through the lens of technologies, this pop-up exhibition invites viewers to see, to touch, to perform with the artworks, which have incorporated “trendy technologies” into the concepts of them. Unlike in daily life, however, viewers are unsustained and unburdened by the technologies in the artworks. Instead, with the help of technologies, viewers will be introduced to unexpected perspectives of mundane life, thus experiencing a moment of awareness and reflection.
In the field of machine learning, overfitting occurs when a computer model is excessively complex and given to many parameters. The computer fails to identify signals, instead it reacts to too much information including distraction and noises.
Ironically, although overfitting is considered a technical problem when a computer is trained to think and predict as a human brain does, it vividly mimics our brains in the so-called Digital Age. We are flooded by information provided by new technologies(smartphones and social medias) even before having time distinguishing the necessary from the distraction.
The pop-up exhibition features Jingying Eric Jiang, Luobin Wang, Weili Shi, Zhipeng Liu, and is curated by Yujia Zhang.
Friday – Sunday, August 26 – 28; Opening reception Friday, 7 – 10 PM
Ouchi Gallery, Suite 105, 170 Tillary Street, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Free
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3) HE Monthly Performance Events – Bathroom – Huisi He and Liu Ming curate a performance art event featuring Olivia Cream, Polina Riabova, and Huise He that takes place in a bathroom.
Sunday, August 28, 3 – 5 PM
1264 Decatur Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
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4) Annie Chen Septet at ShapeShifter Lab – Jazz singer Annie Chen plays with her septet one last time before a four-month residency and tour in China.
Sunday, August 28, 9:30 PM
ShapeShifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Pl, Gowanus, Brooklyn
$12 cover
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5) Cao Fei: Pratt Fine Arts Visiting Artist Lecture Series – Visual artist Cao Fei whose works combine popular culture and social commentary into surreal narratives and are on view in a mid-career retrospective at MoMA PS1 lectures at this series presented by Pratt Institute’s Department of Fine Arts and Department of Digital Arts.
Tuesday, August 30, 7:30 PM
Higgins Hall, Pratt Institute, 61 St James Pl, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
Free
ONGOING FILMS AND SHOWS
1) Time Raiders 《盗墓笔记》 – Based on the online novel series Daomu Biji 《盗墓笔记》, the CGI-heavy film debuted big in China because of its star power but received overwhelmingly negative reviews. Yet, it earned over 100 million USD at the box office.
Opens August 26 at AMC Empire 25.
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2) Line Walker 《使徒行者》- Movie version of the hit HK TV drama. Charmaine Sheh is laden with the task of finding the six mysterious undercover agents. Helping her will be Q-sir (Francis Ng), who is a smart and quick-witted cop. Infiltrating the triads once again, Charmaine will face the dangers of the underground world and will be thrown into the middle of two notorious gang members: Louis Koo — who plays an unconventional drug lord whose actions are always a mystery, and Nick Cheung — a careful, tactical, and coldblooded killer who does not let anything stop his goals. During the operation, Charmaine receives a shocking text stating that the sixth undercover is either Louis or Nick. Determined to finish her mission, Charmaine throws her life on the line and becomes tangled with the triads.
At AMC Empire 25.
CURRENT ART EXHIBITIONS
In addition to the listings below, one local artist is participating in group show:
Xin Song is one of the artists in group show Boundaries at Gallery d’Arte which runs from 8/25 – 9/6.
Catherine Lan and Ginger Chan are part of a new media group exhibition, Always On Never Off at Macy Gallery, Suite 544 Macy Building, 525 120th Street, Teacher’s College, Columbia University. The show continues through 9/2.
Ping Wang exhibits his photographs inspired by dreams and the surrealist movement which use strong lighting and symbolism to create an atmosphere of psychologically charged unease at SVA’s In Cylinder group exhibition 8/13 – 9/10.
Opening and Newly Added:
1) Hai-Hsin Huang: A Museum Show (Gallery 456, 8/26 – 9/23) – Hai-Hsin Huang’s works explore images indicative of contemporary life. Particularly banal everyday life scenes that reveal an ambiguous atmosphere between humor and horror. Such as ordinary family photos, tourists at attractions and the routine disaster drills… Huang is interested in the ridiculousness, fear, absurdity and loneliness in society. To her, most aspects of life have the potential to be ridiculous, absurd, awkward, funny and meaningless all at once.
In A Museum Show, Huang focus on her visual experiences in the museums where she usually spends time in New York City. She explores the contemporary landscape that demonstrates the changing landscapes of our body and the experience of seeing in the digital age of consumerism; in museums, where boundaries vanish between times and places.
The China Wing, 2016. Oil on canvas, 60 x 100 in.
2) Summer Selections (Klein Sun Gallery, 8/4 – 9/3) – This late summer show features work by Chen Wenbo, Cui Xiuwen, Gao Rong, Lu Zhengyuan, Mao Yu, Ren Han, Shi Jinsong and Zhang Gong.
Shi Jinsong, Untitled and Disorder 3.2, 2015.
Daily objects, midnight black ink, brewed tea on rice paper
26 x 26 in. (66 x 66 cm)
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Closing soon:
Deng Tai: Shadow (MoMA PS1, 6/19 – 8/28)
Cao Fei (MoMA PS1, 4/3 – 8/31)
Sue Tsai – Misadventures of the Heart (208 Bowery, 8/11 – 8/28)
Cao Fei (MoMA PS1, 4/3 – 8/31)
Yiyang Cao – A Collection of Slow Openings (The CLUSTER Gallery, 8/11 – 9/1)
Li Qiang: Solo Show (Klein Sun Gallery, 8/4 – 9/3)
Summer Selections (Klein Sun Gallery, 8/4 – 9/3)
Global by Design: Chinese Ceramics from the R. Albuquerque Collection (Metropolitan Museum of Art, through 9/5/16)
Ka-Men Tse Photography (NYPL – Mulberry Street Library, 6/2 – 9/7)
Stage Design by Ming Cho Lee (Museum of Chinese in America, 4/28 – 9/11)
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Current shows:
Visit the exhibition calendar for details for the current shows listed below. As always, check the museum or gallery’s website for hours of operation.
Peili: Greater New York (Klein Sun Gallery, 6/30 – 8/19)
Zhang Gong: The Watcher (Klein Sun Gallery, 6/30 – 8/19)
RongRong & inri (荣荣&映里) – Tamari Story 《妻有物语》 (Chambers Fine Art, 6/4 – 8/20)
Joanne Wang – Calligraphic Nature (Gallery 456, 8/16 – 8/22)
The Chelsea International Fine Art Competition (Agora Gallery, 8/11 – 8/23)
Tang-Wei Hsu – Crystal Cave (Asymmetrik Gallery, 8/10 – 8/24)
Deng Tai: Shadow (MoMA PS1, 6/19 – 8/28)
Sue Tsai – Misadventures of the Heart (208 Bowery, 8/11 – 8/28)
Cao Fei (MoMA PS1, 4/3 – 8/31)
Yiyang Cao – A Collection of Slow Openings (The CLUSTER Gallery, 8/11 – 9/1)
Li Qiang: Solo Show (Klein Sun Gallery, 8/4 – 9/3)
Summer Selections (Klein Sun Gallery, 8/4 – 9/3)
Global by Design: Chinese Ceramics from the R. Albuquerque Collection (Metropolitan Museum of Art, through 9/5/16)
Ka-Men Tse Photography (NYPL – Mulberry Street Library, 6/2 – 9/7)
Stage Design by Ming Cho Lee (Museum of Chinese in America, 4/28 – 9/11)
Hai-Hsin Huang: A Museum Show (Gallery 456, 8/26 – 9/23)
The Keeper (New Museum, 7/20 – 9/25)
Zhai Liang: Living Room (Fou Gallery, 8/18 – 10/9)
Wenjie Han: Scenes (Cloud Gallery, 8/25 – 9/1)
Colors of the Universe: Chinese Hardstone Carvings (Metropolitan Museum of Art, through 10/9/16)
From the Imperial Theater: Chinese Opera Costumes of the 18th and 19th Centuries (Metropolitan Museum of Art, through 10/9/16)
Cinnabar: The Chinese Art of Carved Lacquer, 14th – 19th Century (Metropolitan Museum of Art, through 10/9/16)
Masterpieces of Chinese Painting from the Metropolitan Collection (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 10/31/15 – 10/11/16)
Han Bing: Urban Amber (FitzGerald Fine Arts, 8/1 – 11/1)
Folk My Life (New York Foundation for the Arts Gallery, 7/22 – 10/21)
Lead image by Jonathan Ang Wai Meng. Licensed through Creative Commons.