wishing you a phenomenal new lunar year filled with all the inspiration, tranquility and graceful progress the year of the goat has to offer!
新年快乐!
group open studio | SAPH SHANGHAI
thank you to everyone that came to the group open studio at the swatch art peace hotel last week and made the entire evening so visually charged, unforgettable, and such a perfect way to wrap up the last few days of my time in shanghai.
i am proud to have worked alongside such an amazing group of artists, who fulfilled their separate artist residencies and realized their own work during the same time i realized mine. it has been a pleasure be able to show the results of my research and and energy during these last few winter months as part of this saph event with the work of the following talented people: alexandre and john gailla, elena monzo, dominique othenin-girard, yuan jinhua, chiara luzzana, sofia ortiz, zhu ye, sandro del pistoia, juliana ong, george van wetering, mujin, jovanna tosello, kwang-ju son, maria paz, phillip reed, linda spaman, and michael maurissens.
four of my selected drawings made during my stay.
sandro del pistoia
george van wetering aka Monokino
elena monzo
open studio | saph shanghai
dear friends,
hopefully your 2015 is off to a great start so far!
my studio will be relocating back to berlin after a wonderful and productive time spent in shanghai as an artist-in-residence at the swatch art peace hotel.
as part of saying goodbye to shanghai, a private open studio evening is going to be hosted in my workspace this wednesday, 21 january, from 6 – 8 pm.
you are warmly invited to join. please rsvp for yourself and guests by email. it would be a pleasure to greet you in person at my studio.
[date + time: ]
wednesday, 21 january, 18:00 – 20:00
atelier 36, swatch art peace hotel, 23 east nanjing road near waitan
3楼 36号, 南京东路23号, 近中山东一路
*rsvp to kathryn.gohmert@gmail.com
share this event using the qr code below:
artist residency | swatch art peace hotel
work by alec von bargen
taking a short break from the berlin winter and dropping back into shanghai briefly: i will be participating as one of the artists in residence at the swatch art peace hotel until 22 january, 2015.
although the time will go by too quickly, it is wonderful to be back in the mainland working alongside the other 17 artists here on the bund again after my initial residency here in 2011.
the other current fellow artists in residence include alexandre and john gailla, elena monzo, dominique othenin-girard, yuan jinhua, chiara luzzana, sofia ortiz, zhu ye, sandro del pistoia, juliana ong, george van wetering, bao lixin, jovanna tosello, son kwang-ju, maria pazcontreras buzeta, phillip reed, and heidi bryce.
it’s so refreshing to see how many positive changes have happened since i was last working in this building three years ago. looking very forward to this time of heavy creative focus while working in an old and much-loved home.
FACES & TRACES | images
it’s nice to feel that the energy and artwork are very much alive and present in the exhibition and studio spaces of the swatch art peace hotel, even as shanghai begins to get colder.
being able to see the artwork by some of my most favorite humans as their ‘traces’ are displayed together in one place is a great feeling. the work collected from the combined three years’ worth of past artists-in-residence that have lived and created at the saph in shanghai has completely invigorated the walls with new life.
thrilled to be living and working here again over this upcoming stretch of winter weeks ahead. below are images from the exhibition including a painting from my mixed media brain series, on display and in the catalog.
FACES & TRACES | Swatch Art Peace Hotel
i’m very pleased to announce my work will be included in the exhibition, FACES & TRACES, hosted at the swatch art peace hotel in their shanghai location on the bund as part of the celebration of the hotel’s 3 year anniversary.
with it’s official opening this weekend, FACES & TRACES will showcase the “traces” selected from the works given to the residency program by it’s 139 former artists-in-residence.
celebrations continue with a street art festival on the Bund.
the exhibition is open to the public from november 1, 2014 through the end of the year.
follow the link above for more information about the exhibition and other events in the swatch program on the swatch website.
if you are in the area, please try to go view this group exhibition [and enjoy it on my behalf, as i won’t be there in person]!
year of the horse | 中国新年快乐 2014
happy chinese new year! 中国新年快乐!
wishing you and your loved ones all the adventure, good energy and success the year of the horse has to offer: have a wonderful 2014.
祝你和你的家人们：在新的一年中，万事如意，马到成功.
A GALLERY ON THE ROLL | randian
really happy about randian’s wonderful article on little victories gallery and the artists involved, A GALLERY ON THE ROLL.
This is a project I was involved in with artists, alec von bargen, Cristina Ohlmer, Evgeny Bondarenko, Jordan Kostov, Julian Palacz, Katie Surridge, Lili Chin, Luca Bray, saoirse higgins, Savinder Bual, Shang Cheng Xiang, Stefano Ogliari Badessi, Vittoria de Ferrari Sapetto, and Willy Chyr.
thank you randian for the lovely words.
also see more on the little victories gallery project here.
LITTLE VICTORIES gallery | domus
this article just appeared in italian publication, domus, and explores the art and vision of the little victories project space founders and the exhibitions held in shanghai recently.
see the article below with my own work mentioned near the end.
the online version is also available on the domus site just here.
696 weihai lu | in remembrance
fellow artists and old friends, susanne junker (founder of stageBACK project space), barbara anna hussar and zwolf schnifis are giving a talk at the bavarian rivieratonight – doing their part to keep 696 immortal by focusing their discussion on this special community, formerly located in an abandoned gun factory in shanghai’s busy city center.
to touch on the good memories that still abound for so many people, i’m including below a few images and highlights from an article “shape of the city,” [originally published in 2011] which i discovered today while perusing the talk’s itinerary [thanks to barbara anna husar].
“initially, one may mistake the weihai lu 696 artists community for a government-sanctioned ‘creative cluster,’ like m50, red town [shanghai sculpture space], tianzifang, or beijing’s 798 arts district… what these creative clusters lack, however, is the real sense of danger, experimentation, and freedom that is still present at artist communities such as weihai lu, not to mention the lower rents that allow working artists to afford studio space in the center of the city.”
well put.
artists were evacuated from the area by, ahem, the you-know-what around 3 years ago … about the time this article was written. it is still touching though to see this place referenced fondly by people that used to work in its much-loved walls, as in the case of the former 696 artists speaking in bavaria this evening.
this space, now vacated for some time, still remains an iconic testament for me to both the transformative power of creativity and its ability to unite and inspire communities that choose to work together. the 80 something foreign and local artists that used to make up this community are now scattered all over the city/country/world, each making their work somewhere else now. it was special, but too good to last it seems.
missed but not forgotten: RIP, 696.
A SHOT IN THE DARK | Little Victories Gallery | Strictly Designers Studio
thursday, july 25, sees little victories gallery navigating all its attitude and force to the cool docks for A SHOT IN THE DARK, featuring my recent drawings, in the guerilla-pop-up gallery’s exhibition next week.
the little victories gallery has teamed up with the mad genius minds of strictly designers united for this one day solo show, while also celebrating strictly’s last days in its current location with their new location to be announced during the evening.
read the randian article about little victories here.
the opening runs from 7 – 10 pm with djs to be announced soon. entry is free to all.
coming soon | Little Victories Gallery
shanghai’s newest mobile gallery space is artist-powered [literally, as the artist owners will be using their leg muscles to keep the space mobile] and was founded by artists katie surridge, julian palacz and stefano ogliari badessi who met in shanghai through a residency program. the crew of international artists found their inspiration for the showspace through the idea of censorship and its continuous presence in china.
little victories was established in 2013 in shanghai, china with the objective of running a thought provoking exhibition program of dedicated group and solo shows.
secret vii footage | ICS
so thanks to the team at ICS, we now have a copy of the footage aired a few weeks ago on shanghai’s largest local network which featured a great interview of all the artists of the secret vii.
this last exhibition, THE ESSENCE OF RANDOM, is to be our last guerilla pop up exhibition for some time. and just in time, as it looks as if the secret vii aren’t so secret anymore.
see the inteview footage on youtube here [mainlanders, we’ll need our vpns as usual].
HUSTLE exhibition | Studio Rouge
BLUE | secret vii
we’ve blown a hole in the concrete separating us from the old space and now – low and behold – the artists of the Secret vii are reclaiming our old place in the lanes behind taikang lu.
this third group exhibition showcases everything blue…
come be blue with us this evening for the group guerrilla opening from 6 – 9 pm, lane 248 #48 taikang lu.
DRAWING AND WHAT? | ifa gallery [vernissage]
thank you to everyone who came to view the DRAWING AND WHAT? group exhibition on its opening night at if a gallery last weekend.
i’m including some images from the evening here.
alternately, you can see the ifa gallery website for more details on the show.
DRAWING AND WHAT? | ifa gallery
i am very honored to announce my work’s participation in the group show, DRAWING AND WHAT?, at ifa Gallery. the show opens this sat, 9 march at 5 pm.
some of my recent work will be shown alongside the 17 other talented artists whose drawing-related creations are being featured in this exploration of the concept of illustration.
see the ifa gallery website here for more details.
hope to see you there.
year of the snake 2013
happy year of the snake.
food for thought in this article here on five big ideas in the year of the snake.
studio days | shanghai
so the year of the snake is, by far, the most productive year so far ever. with paint literally everywhere.
most of this sewn text compilations are from a secondhand book of collected chinese jokes I found in a bookshop here. they are assembled in such a way that the jokes are still readable …
GUERILLASHOWERPROJECT | shanghai
the GUERILLASHOWERPROJECT is now underway. these are a few film stills below.
the noise strikes first – the rush of it
the personal and primitive ‘you’ seeking, ashamedly and humbly as you approach a metallic idol, another generous transformation:
overwhelming and meditative: the sound of the universe in a shower.
more on the GUERILLASHOWERPROJECT soon.