Asia Art Forum- lectures starting October

Arthub is delighted to support a new educational initiative, Asia Art Forum- a dynamic series of lectures, featuring respected members of the Chinese contemporary art world discussing the emergence and historical development of Chinese contemporary art and its cultural institutions, as well as issues pertaining to the collection and market of Chinese art.

 For the first time, this dynamic and fast changing period of Chinese art history will be unpicked and laid out, enabling a steady assessment and understanding of these extraordinary developments. Taking 1978 as its starting point the course will move forward chronologically focusing on key movements, specific groups and significant exhibitions that form the backbone of this startling rise in Chinese contemporary art. To date, Beijing has always been the focus of any study of contemporary Chinese art history, this course will redress the balance, shifting the focus to include the significant role played by Shanghai&r squo;s artists and art scene.



Fostering direct encounters with leading members of the Chinese contemporary art world, the program offers a privileged access to first-hand information on subjects relating to the Chinese contemporary art history and the collection of art. The forum encourages the exchange of ideas by means of guest lectures and personal contact with the lecturers and other guests, and will provide a unique opportunity to art professionals, collectors and enthusiasts to study the history of Chinese contemporary art.

Each two-hour seminar will take place in varying locations across Shanghai, either leading galleries or museums and will be presented by some of the most prominent experts in the field.

The course will be supplemented by with private gallery visits and specially organised social events which will provide informal meetings with leading gallerists, artists and critics at the forefront of Shanghai’s art scene.




Asia Art Forum is an educational initiative in collaboration with Arthub, produced by Pippa Dennis, with consultation from Defne Ayas and Davide Quadrio. Arthub has supported Asia Art Forum on framework, educational content, and scholarship.


Programme to include:
• Chinese Aesthetics: a background to Chinese Art History
• Birth and Rise of the Avant Garde: 1979-1989
• Turning Abstract: Shanghai Art from 1976 to 1985
• Political Pop: Post Tianamen Trends and the Ascent of Painting
• The Rise of Shanghai: Experimental Exhibitions, the Shift from Painting to Photography, Video, and Installations
• Sensation to Legitimization
• Performance and New Media in China
• Art Market Trends and ‘What’s Next?’

Speakers to include:

Philip Tinari is a writer and curator based in Beijing. He is Contributing Editor of Artforum, and founding editor of artforum.com.cn, the magazine’s Chinese-language website. His writings have appeared in publications including The New York Times Magazine, Parkett, The Wall Street Journal, and the Chinese journal Dushu, as well as exhibition catalogues for museums including the Guggenheim and the Serpentine Gallery. He is China Advisor to Art Basel. In 2007, he founded Office for Discourse Engineering, an editorial studio focused on publishing and translation related to Chinese contemporary art.


Karen Smith has been in Beijing since 1992 researching Chinese contemporary art. She is the author of Nine Lives: The Birth of Avant-Garde Art in New China and the forthcoming monogrpah on Ai Weiwei. Her curatorial work includes The Real Thing at Tate Liverpool, 2007; The Chinese, Kunstmuseum Wolfsberg, Germany, 2004; and Illumination; Ai Weiwei and Tibetan Plateau, Beijing Girls: Liu Xiaodong both at Mary Boone Gallery, 2008.

Davide Quadrio, co-founder of BizArt, China’s first not for profit art centre, and creator of Arthub, apan Asian arts organisation that supports mobility, research and process based artistic work in Asia and the Middle East. He is based in Bangkok and Shanghai and works as art director, curator and educator committed to supporting artistic endeavours crossing the boundaries between east and west.

Defne Ayas is based in Shanghai since 2005, and working as an art history professor at New York University in Shanghai and as a program consultant to Arthub, serving China and the rest of Asia. Ayas is also curator of PERFORMA, the biennale of visual art performance with base in New York City, where she spends part of the year. Prior to joining PERFORMA, where she has been developing and presenting performances since its inception in 2004, Ayas worked as the Education and New Media Programmer at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.

Zhao Chuan is a writer, theatre director and critic. He writes arts columns and regularly publishes in major newspapers and the art press in mainland China and Taiwan. He’s the guest lecturer in the ChinaArt Academy and New York University’s Shanghai Center. His book Shanghai Abstract Story was published in 2006.

Michelle Blumenthal is an art specialist based in Hong Kong and Shanghai. She originally trained in Chinese traditional porcelain, ceramic, textiles and furniture, later moving into Chinese contemporary art as a curator and art consultant. Her specific area of expertise focuses on the development of Chinese abstract art from the late 1970’s.


Course I
designed for Shanghai residents
21 October – 2 December 2008
8 weekly sessions, Tuesday evening, 7.30 – 9 pm

Course II
designed for non-Shanghai residents
21 November – 23 November 2008
3 day course, daily, 9-12am and 2-4pm
Both courses will cover the same topics with the aim that Course II will enable overseas people to take advantage of this singular opportunity.

Prices
Course I 8,000 RMB (due on registration)
Course II 8,000 RMB (due on registration)
15% of all profits donated to Arthub, a non profit art and cultural organisation that promotes contemporary art creation in China and Asia.



For more information please contact:
Pippa Dennis
M (China) +86 138 1611 7193

Maria Turke
M (China) +86 131 2791 4091
asiaartforum@gmail.com
arthub.org.cn/asia-art-forum