Busan Biennale pushes for new discoveries in contemporary Asian art – artist list

KOREA ART EXHIBITIONS BIENNALES ART EVENTS EMERGING ARTISTS

The Busan Biennale 2010 will be held from 11 September until 20 November at several locations in Busan, including the Busan Museum of Art, as well as at the nearby Yachting Center and Gwangalli Beach, under the theme of ‘Living in Evolution’.

The Biennale’s website describes the theme as such:

The official 2010 Busan Biennale poster, designed by Lee Pooroni and based on the theme ‘Living in Evolution’.

We are living individual lives. Yet at the same time, we are living in the processes of evolution. Evolution will continue. But no one knows the direction of this evolution.

This exhibition will try to think through the relations between art, society, world, history and the future by considering the dual time axes in which we are living today.

Featuring 161 works from 72 artists, the art festival will make a new attempt of integrating three existing exhibitions – “Contemporary Art Exhibition”, “Sea Art Festival” and “Busan Sculpture Project” – into one.

The Busan Biennale has been held every two years since the beginning of 2000. This year’s biennale makes an attempt at new discoveries and insights on relations between individuals and mankind, past and future and arts and society.

Kiichiro Adachi, 'Antigravity device', 2009, tulip, soil, neodymium magnet, stainless steel, halogen light.

In an unusual move, the 2010 Busan Biennale will have one single director, Azumaya Takashi, planning for all exhibitions. As an independent curator hailed for his experimental approach to exhibitions, Azumaya has held curatorial posts at the Setagaya Art Museum and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. He was commissioner of the 2002 Media City Seoul and guest curator for the 2008 Busan Biennale.

The art festival aims to help forge a closer link between the public and contemporary art through creating connections between the featured works and exhibition venues. Large-scale installations will be placed at several key spots in the city to serve as landmarks, depicting the exhibition theme and symbolising civilisations.

Along with the main exhibition, directed by Azumaya, the 2010 Busan Biennale will be composed of special exhibitions such as “Now, Asian Art” and joint exhibitions such as “Gallery Festival” and “Exhibition at alternative spaces”.

Featuring young and experimental artists from Korea, China and Japan,”Now, Asian Art” aims to tighten regional networks in Asia and strengthen contemporary Asian art. “Gallery Festival” is a set of special exhibitions presented by local art galleries, again featuring artists from Korea, China and Japan.

Educational programs, including a contemporary art course called “Art Story”, will be available. The course is scheduled to open in October and targets adult art lovers and aspiring artists. In addition, a conference of art editors in Asia will be held on September 12 under the title of the “Asian Editors’ Conference”.

Asian artists participating in the 2010 Busan Biennale include:

Donghee Koo, 'Souvenir', 2008, wood, light fixture, mirror, and artificial plant.

Korea
Min-Kyu KANG
Tae Hun KANG
Donghee KOO
Dalsul KWON
Eunju KIM
Jung-Myung KIM
Shinjung RYU
Bal Loon PARK
Sung Tae PARK
SATA
Moo-kyoung SHIN
Sangho SHIN
Dayeon WON
Kibong RHEE
Byungho LEE
SongJoon LEE
Young Sun LIM
Seung JUNG
Jinyun CHEONG
Hye Ryun JUNG
Jung Moo CHO
Ki-Youl CHA
Bongho HA

Thaweesak Srithongdee, 'Zoo', 2009, acrylic on canvas.

Japan
Kohei NAWA
Saburo MURAOKA
Kiichiro ADACHI
Kenji YANOBE
Miki JO
Akira KANAYAMA
Tomoko KONOIKE
Kosei KOMATSU

China
MadeIn
Shun YUAN
Anxiong QIU

Thailand
Imhathai SUWATTANASILP
Thaweesak SRITHONGDEE

Turkey
Emre HÜNER
Inci EVINER

UK, Israel
Yishay GARBASZ
Zadok BEN-DAVID

Mongolia
Amarsaikhan NAMSRAIJAV

Vietnam
Dinh Q. LÊ

Philippines
Christina DY

Taiwan
Shih Chieh HUANG

Egypt
Doa ALY

VL/KN

Related Topics: Korean venues, biennales, emerging artists, promoting art

Related Posts:

• 27 contemporary Southeast Asian artists featured in ASEAN-Korea photo exhibition – July 2010 – Southeast Asian contemporary photographers showcase their work in Busan
• Korean art hit and miss at Seoul Auction Hong Kong: New York Times – July 2010 – summary of a New York Times article explaining the market trends of auctions held by Seoul Auction
• Touring Taiwan: 50 of Taiwan’s top artworks on display at the Busan Museum of Arts, Korea – January 2010 – Taipei Fine Arts Museum Collection shown in Busan
• Performance of Asia tops West for first timers at auction in 2008/09 – November 2009 – ArtPrice: Asian artists outperformed their Western counterparts
• Troubles for Korean art at home, better reception abroad – Korean Herald, New York Magazine – January 2009 – report of a downward trend in the local Korean art market

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Christies in Dubai sets record for most pricey Arab artwork

CONTEMPORARY MIDDLE EASTERN ART

DUBAI- Christies auctions Ahmed Mustafa's diptych "Remembrance and Gratitude" on October 24, 2009 for a record breaking $662,500.

A Christies auction in Dubai set a new record for the price of a contemporary Arab artwork, fetching $662,500 for a double calligraphy piece by Egyptian artist Ahmed Mustafa titled “Remembrance and Gratitude.” Matoob Business reports Mustafa already held the record for the highest selling Arab artwork, and broke his own auction sales record set with a different artwork in 2007.

Christies not surprised

The record breaking sale was little surprise to Christies, however. The Daily Star reveals Christies had given the work the highest-ever guide price, valuing Mustafa’s diptych at $600,000-$800,000. Christies Middle East and Europe president Jussi Phylkkanen notes:

“Expectations were high, especially with regards to the exhibited works of exceptional quality”

Other high sellers

The second highest selling artwork at $578,500 dollars was “Untitled (Yellow Heads)” painting by India’s Tyeb Metha. Turkish artist Burhan Dogancay’s “Rift” sold for $242,500, and Iranian Charles Hossein Zenderoudi’s “Kharjee Spirit” fetched $218,500 dollars.

Middle Eastern market shows growth

The October 24th auction in total sold 6.7 million dollars worth of artworks, twice the value reached in the last auction that was held in April. The October sale was being viewed by experts as a test for the Middle Eastern art market, which has struggled in the recession as the mega rich expressed less interest in purchasing artworks.

Regarding the sale, AFP reports that Michael Jeha, Christies Middle East managing director commented:

“Despite the global economic crisis… the appetite for art in the Middle East continues to grow, and also the appetite for Middle Eastern arts.”

Jeha continued by saying that since the first auction in 2006, Christies sales in Dubai have risen by 400%.

Related Posts

• Review round up- Saatchi Middle East art show unveiled- which artists are critic favorites? Feb 09
• Abu Dhabi art- a major new art calendar event just announced– July 09
• Latest update on the market for Iranian art– Dec 08
• The Dubai art market and its future– Dec 08

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Abu Dhabi’s Venice Biennale curator Catherine David says only 6 interesting artists from Emirates, whom will she show?

 

Hani Rashed

ART ABU DHABI

The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) announced late last month that the city-state will participate in next year’s 53rd Venice Biennale of Visual Art, entitled “Making Worlds,” a first for the oil-rich Gulf state.

Rather than renting a national pavilion, as most recent arrivals to the event do, Abu Dhabi will contribute the “ADACH Platform for Venice,” to be curated by Paris-born curator Catherine David. David has worked Venice before, presenting her “Contemporary Arab Representations” at the Biennale’s 50th edition, “Dreams and Conflicts,” in 2003. She is perhaps best known for having been artistic director in 1997 of documenta X, a highly conceptual multifaceted art event that takes place every five years in the German city of Kassel.

 

Catherine David

In an ambitious attempt to become a cultural hub, Abu Dhabi has recently initiated partnerships with many high-profile institutions such as the Frankfurt Book Fair and the New York Film Academy, and will soon be host to outposts of the famous Guggenheim and Louvre museums.

“Why are we looking at the Gulf?” asked David. “In front of you, you have India, Iran, Pakistan. It’s not in an island.”

Although she could not provide much in the way of details, as much of the content of the platform is still under discussion, she did imply that her selections would not hail exclusively from Abu Dhabi.

“To be frank, there are only five or six very interesting artists from the Emirates,” she said.

Perhaps some of her choices will be drawn from her recently curated show “In the Middle of the Middle,” on until March 2009 at the Sfeir-Semler Gallery. This features 12 artists living and working across the Middle East, particularly in Cairo, Beirut, Damascus, and Occupied Palestine.

Artists include

Jawad Al Malhi

 

Yasser Alwan

Yasser Alwan has lived in Switzerland and Lebanon and studied photography in America. Evocative and intimate, his portraits of people working or passing by the streets of Cairo are inscribed in the long tradition of documentary photography. His photographs have been exhibited in Cairo, New York, Frankfurt, San Francisco, London and Canterbury.
Ayman Baalbaki
Anna Boghiguian
Rami Farah
Joude Gorani
Wafa Hourani
Simon Kabboush
Waël Noureddine
Hani Rashed

 

Walid Sadek

Walid Sadik is an artist and writer from Lebanon. He is currently assistant professor at the Department of Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut.

Akram Zaatari

Original story Daily Star further artist information and images Galerie Sfei-Semler

More on Biennials, Middle Eastern artists, influential curators and trends, photography

• Dubai art market and its future December 2008
• First UK survey of female Iranian photographers video artists November 2008
• Tate Musuem acquires video of Lebanese artist Akram Zaatari October 2008

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Radar’s top four artist picks at Cairo International Biennal

ART BIENNIAL AFRICA EGYPT

The opening ceremony of the 11th Cairo International Biennale took place on 21 December 2008. Past versions of this state-organised biennial have been slammed by critics:

The 10th edition of the Cairo International Biennale could have very well been the 8th or 9th….(and)once again highlights the division that exists in the local art circuit between the establishment, namely state-sponsored arts institutions including that of the Biennale, and the private or so-called independent art sector. Moreover, like it’s predecessors, a clear lack of curatorial direction in the selection makes the range of works on exhibition seem disconnected from each other as well as from international contemporary art practices from which the Biennale organisers claim to be operating from within.

NAFAS art magazine

We will have to wait for all the reviews to come in before we can determine the consensus view of the 11th edition but, whatevever the outcome, there is interesting art to explore. Here are Radar’s favourites:

• Haruko Yamashita (Japan 1952) – sculptor who has lived in Paris and Italy

• Gulsun Karamustafa (Turkey 1946) – film. She lives in Istanbul, reviewed by Art Forum, Frieze, Art in America Gulsun on wikipedia

• Adel Abidin (Iraq 1973) – film sculpture.  Now  lives in Helsinki. He has exhibited in the Venice Biennale and MOCA Taipei and has been featured in  international publications including Le Monde, Guardian, New York Times www.adelabidin.com

• Kimsooja (Korea 1957) multimedia from video to sewn works, exhibited at Sao Paolo Biennial and Venice Biennale Kimsooja’s website
  

  Lotus

The principles of harmony and oneness are reflected in Kimsooja’s installation Lotus Zone of Zero, 2008, currently housed at Rotunda at Galerie Ravenstein in Brussels through January 18, 2009. The site specific installation consists of approximately 2000 lanterns shaped as lotus flowers. The visual is accompanied by sound in the form of Tibetan, Gregorian and Islamic chants that merge in the center of the space. Honoring a vision of peace, the work embodies the dance between individuality and universality, yin and yang, and a potential future for planet earth.

Evilmonito.com for featured artist review

Find below a complete list of artists from the Asian continent:

Azerbaijan: Adil Yusifov

Bahrain: Waheeda Malullah

Bangladesh: Firoz Mahmoud

China: Qiu Anxiong

Egypt: Adel Amien Al-Siwy, Arman Agoub Gubian, Essam Mohamed Maarouf, Hanafi Mahmoud Khalaf alla. Wael Kamal Wahby Fahmy Darwish

Iraq: Adel Abidin, Ali Assaf El-Gabry, Tamara Nouri

Japan : Haruko Yamashita

Hani Hourani

Jordan: Hani Hourani

Korea: Kimsooja

Kuwait: Shorouk Amin

Lebanon: Khaled Ramadan, Salwa Zeidan

Libya: Ali al-Abani

Palestine: Hani Zurob

Qatar: Salam Al-Malek, Youseff Ahmed

Saudi Arabia: Ahmed Mater Al-Ziad, Fahd al-Hijilan, Faisal Samra

Syria: Buthayna Ali, Sabhan Adam

Turkey: Gulsun Karamustafa

See:

• Cairo Biennial website for more images and bios of artists

More posts about Biennials, emerging artists, sculpture,

Subscribe to Art Radar to know which artists are getting noticed

 

Kimsooja Bottari Truck

Top three Middle Eastern art show treats in Dubai winter 2008

MIDDLE EASTERN ART

A quick glance at three interesting shows in Dubai this autumn throws up a plethora of talent.

 

Huda Lutfi

Huda Lutfi at The Third Line 13 November – 4 December 2008

One of Egypt’s most notable contemporary artists, Huda Lutfi presents her exhibition Zan’it Al-Sittat, an exploration into the city of Cairo, and more specifically, the visibility of women in Egyptian culture and society.

Both historian and artist, Lutfi is a bricoleur. She collects disparate images and manipulates them to re-invent her personal vision of Cairo, its histories and events. In doing so, Lutfi simultaneously comments on the political relevance of her home country, lifting old feminine icons from history and giving them new life by re-contextualising historic time lines, creating hybridised, timeless female figures.

Third Line Gallery

Khosrow Hassanzadeh at B21 11 November to 12 December 2008

Born to an Azerbaijani family in 1963 in Tehran , Khosrow Hassanzadeh spent most of his childhood in museums and cinemas – a refuge from the busy streets of Tehran , where he sold bananas to tourists near the National Museum of Iran. As a teenager he volunteered to fight on the Iran-Iraq front, not expecting that he would stay as a recruit for several years. When he came back from war, having escaped death, he chose a discipline that he always dreamt about: painting and poetry. Since then, Hassanzadeh has exhibited worldwide in leading art galleries and his works adorn the walls of several public collections such as the British Museum , London , The World Bank in Washington DC and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.

• B21 Gallery
• Khosrow Hassanzadeh website

 

Faisal Samra at XVA Gallery 27 October – 13 November 2008

‘I started out experimenting on another shape, another support on which to paint.’ Saudi artist Faisal Samra has pulled out pieces that he produced back in 2001 for this latest show. Moving away from a traditional canvas stretched two-dimensionally flat, Samra wraps his canvas around a wire mesh. The canvas itself wrinkles into a leathery skin-like form and, when hung, it takes on the slightly unnerving shape of a human torso. 

• XVA Gallery
• Faisal Samra website
• review and image Time Out

For latest posts about artists in the Middle East 

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Third Guangzhou Triennial reviews and highlights – South China Morning Post, Shanghai Eye

TRIENNIAL GUANGZHOU CHINA

Art highlights, Chinese censorship and a list of Asian artists and curators.

Farewell to Post Colonialism, Third Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China: 6 September to 16 November 2008

Hong Kong based art critic John Batten in the South China Morning Post gives a thumbs up to the “mostly excellent” art at the Third Guangzhou Triennial, an exhibition of over 300 works by 180 artists in Guangdong Musuem of Art, but is less enthusiastic about the “elaborate explanations” of the curators whose “theoretical notions should simply be ignored”. His thoughtful review discusses the work of Hong Kong artist Tozer Pak Sheung-chuen whose conceptual project Page 22 (Half Folded Library) consists of secretly folding page 22 in 15,500 books in the Ottendorfer Branch Public Library in New York. Other pieces Batten favours included ‘fascinating’ video works in The Tea Pavilion and Middle East Channel:

• Corazon Amaya-Canete and Moira Zoitl’s collaborative work on foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong
• Rania Stephan’s interviews with children in Lebanon
• Tomoko Konoike’s manga video installation Knifer Forest
• Archana Hande’s spoof of marriage and dating websites www dot arrange ur own marriage dot com

Shanghai-based blogger Shanghai Eye has less to say about the art  – “the strength of the triennial was its very interesting mix of international and local flavours” – and instead gives a hilarious account of the washout “anarchic opening press conference” and the antics of the Chinese censors. “Cultural bureau officials descended en masse the day before the show opened, offended by a preview which appeared in the local newspaper “Southern Weekend.” The curators and museum director said this was par for the course, and after some negotiation a work by Zhu Yu, a discourse entitled “192 proposals for members of the united Nations” had some of the texts blurred. “If you squinted you could still read the text, so I didn’t quite see the point,” said Nigel Prince, a visiting curator from Ikon gallery in the UK.”

 

Asian artists:

(Group) Lin and Lam, Hui ZHANG, Wei LIU(b.1972 China), Gang ZHAO ( b.1954 China), Sopawan BOONNIMITRA, Corazon AMAYA-CANETE (Philippines), Jaishri ABICHANDANI, Haegue YANG(b.1971), Doris Waiyin WONG, Masahiro WADA, Nana Seo EUNA, Arin RUNGJANG, Warren Chiwo LEUNG, Kit LEE, Michael Honghwee LEE, Ade Darmawan, Sreshta PREMNATH, Jeuno KIM, Jesal KAPADIA, Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL, Minleong CHAI, Matyn SEE, Riri RIZA, Amir MUHAMMAD, Chihyin LIN, Minjie ZHONG, Anding ZHANG, Yan MA, Tao JIANG, Kaiyu XIAO, Yin WANG(王音 b.1964), Qin QI, Xiaodong LIU, Jianyu DUAN, Yi ZHOU( b.1961), Duanxiang ZHENG, Fang YE, Jiechang YANG( b.1956), Zhen XU( b.1977), Junyong WU, Jiahao WANG( b.1975), Kaisyng TAN( b.1975), Muchen, Yinong SHAO(b.1961 China), Dalkh OCHIR, Jun NGUYEN-HATSUSHIBA, Huma MULJI, Heungshing LIU, Simon LEUNG, Kesang LAMDARK, Tomoko KONOIKE (Japan), Jitish KALLAT (India), Aili JIA, Xiaopeng HUANG, Archana HANDE, Soonmin YONG, Ran CHENG, Hamra ABBAS, Yu ZHU( b.1970), Shanzhuan WU, Jianwei WANG, Inga Svala THORSDITTIR, Shiming QIU, Anxiong QIU( b.1972), Tozer Sheungchuen PAK, KOOSIL-JA, Yongping HUANG, Ping LUO, Xiangcheng HU, Emily CHENG, Tong CHEN, Guogu ZHENG(b.1970), Bo ZHENG, Yuxing WU( b.1976), Weili YEH, Fudong YANG( b.1971), Total Art Group, Zhijie QIU( b.1969), Bundith PHUNSOMBATLERT, T. Minh Ha TRINH, Xiong XIAO, Jie LU, Dahong LIU, Mengbo FENG, Amy CHEUNG, Chiehjen CHEN, Dalia Al-Kury (Jordan), Yasmina Ben Ari (Egypt), Mireille AstorE (Libanon), Reem Bader (Jordan), Kaya Behkalam (Iran), Alia El Bialy (Egypt), Hisham Bizri (Libanon), Shahram Entekhabi (Iran), Lamia Joreige (Libanon), Khaled Kafez (Egypt),  Nadine Khan (Egypt),
Shula Lipski (Libanon), Waheeda Malullah (Bahrain), WaëL Noureddine (Libanon), Ayman Ramadana (Egypt), Hamed Sahihi (Iran), Larissa Sansour ( Palestine / USA), Akram Zaatari (Libanon), Rania Stephan (Libanon),

Curators: Sarat MAHARAJ, Shiming GAO (b.1976), Johnson Tsongzung CHANG

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Five emerging artists from the Middle East – Saatchi Online

EMERGING ARTISTS MIDDLE EAST

Saatchi Online magazine showcases five up and coming artists from the Middle East.

Nadine Kanso

 

 

 

Nadine Kanso

Lebanese collage artist Nadine Kanso has her second solo show in B21 comprising 20 mostly monochromatic works. She explains “I work a lot on socio-political messages, such as combining fashion and a photo of less fortunate people and someone like G.W Bush”.  “Collage is a special form of art, especially if it is done in a funky way, where it is loud and bold,” says Kanso.

Hayv Kahrman

The twenty-seven year old Iraqi artist, who shows a series of drawings at Dubai’s The Third Line gallery, gathers inspiration from traditional Japanese prints, art nouveau, Persian miniature painting and fashion imagery. Describing her references, she says, “One of my major inspirations is avant-garde fashion photography. And I try to be ‘current’ with the designs etc. My pieces may have an ancient or historical background, but I like to have them be related to today, with the usage and implementations from contemporary art and design.”

Laleh Khorramian

Tehran-born and New York-based, this artist produces mixed media works in which visual references from her homeland are combined with influences from Western art history, opera, pop culture, Disney and her personal experiences. Khorramian says, “I don’t think of myself as fitting in with the Middle Eastern art scene.” Khorramian explains by email from her Brooklyn studio, “My work is not overtly about political topics, regional issues or my issues with being Middle Eastern. I think my work is about broader events and the universal forces of love, death and creation. ”

Youssef Nabil:

 

 

 

Youssef Nabil

Egyptian-born and New York-based photographer Youssef Nabil’s makes hand-painted images with old film-star glamour. Nabil, who has shot Tracey Emin, Nan Goldin, David Lynch, Louise Bourgeois and Kate Moss, often bathes his subjects in buttery gold light and thereby declares his work as a product of the region.

Hilda Hiary

The thirty-nine year old Jordanian-born and Dubai-based artist has had paintings collected by Queen Rania and Queen Nour, along with members of the Italian Parliament and significant museum curators. Hiary maintains that the roots of her abstract art are firmly in the region where she is represented by Dubai’s XVA Gallery “I believe abstract art  did not originate from the West, ” she asserts. “Even at the beginning of Islamic art, you can see that abstraction was a clear component. But what is really interesting in Middle Eastern art right now, is that we have many different schools and trends, all gaining attention at once.”

See (in new window)

• Saatchi online
• posts on Islamic art

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