Opening 9/2 | "What Kind of Us Does Painting Need"

Ei Arakawa (b. 1977, Fukushima) is a performance artist based in Los Angeles. His performances are created through collaborations with various people including contemporary artists and art historians. The means of these collaborations are diverse, with such figures physically participating as performers, and in other instances their works themselves making appearances. Arakawa also invalidates the boundary between the performers and the audience by inviting the audience to participate in an improvisational manner, thus converting them from the role of passive viewers to active subjects of the performance. In the context of contemporary art that is based on notions of individualism as articulated in western modern ideology, Arakawa’s act of establishing the intersection between collaborations with other artists and the audience as his very practice, can be seen as an intention to liberate his works from the subjective framework of the “self.” 

Ariakawa’s works have been exhibited at: Tate Modern, London (2021), Honolulu Biennial (2019), Liverpool Biennial (2018), Sculpture Project Münster (2017), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2017), Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (2017), The 9th Berlin Biennale, Germany (2016), Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany (2015), Gwangju Biennial, South Korea (2014), The Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland (2014), Whitney Biennial, New York (2014), Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, USA (2013), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2013), Guggenheim Museum, New York (2013), The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013), Pavilion of Georgia, the 55th Venice Biennial, Italy (2013), 30th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (2012), Le Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France (2011), Yokohama Triennial, Japan (2008), Performa, New York (2007), Echigo-Tsumari Triennial (2006).

Magnus Frederik Clausen (b. 1981, Denmark) is an artist whose practice has been questioning the medium of painting. His work, sometimes hidden or covered, reconsiders the place of the commodity and its related display. More recently, he started delegating the making of his paintings. He graduated with an MA from The European Graduate School, Saas-Fee, under the professors Carlos Amorales and Siegfried Zielinski. 

Recent solo and duo exhibitions include Castle (with Yu Nishimura), LA (forthcoming 2024), CANTINA (with Kaare Ruud), Aarhus (forthcoming 2023), Billytown (with Jason Hirata), Den Haag (2023), solo presentation with Claas Reiss at Art Brussels, Brussels (2023), solo presentation with Claas Reiss at Art Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf (2023), PFA (with Claus Haxholm), Copenhagen (2023), Braunsfelder, Cologne (2022), Claas Reiss, London (2022), Freddy Gallery (with Mads Lindberg), Harris (2022), C.C.C., Copenhagen (2022), Rinomina (with Claus Haxholm), Paris (2021), Spazio Orr (with David Ostrowski), Brescia (2021), AGA Works/Tørreloft (with Sónia Almeida), Copenhagen (2020), The Uffizi (with Mads Lindberg), NY (2020), CGK, Copenhagen (2018), Magasin Lotus, Copenhagen (2018), JIR SANDEL, Copenhagen (2018), Matèria Gallery (with Giulia Marchi), Rome (2018), Years, Copenhagen (2015), Palazzo Lucarini, Trevi (2014).

Group exhibitions and film screenings include Opdahl, Stavanger (forthcoming 2024), MadeIn Gallery, Shanghai (2023), Knulp, Sydney (forthcoming 2023), Goya Curtain, Tokyo (2023), Catherine Zeta, Cologne (2022), Haus Wien, Vienna (2021), Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2021), Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus (2021), Copenhagen Contemporary, Copenhagen (2019), Heine Onstad Art Center, Høvikodden (2018), Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2016), Ringsted galleriet, Ringsted (2016), 56th Venice biennale collateral events, Venice (2015), Bruch & Dallas, Cologne (2015), Luma, Arles (2015), Kunstraum, London (2014), Accademia di Romania, Rome (2012), Arti, Amsterdam (2011), Kenya International Film Festival, Nairobi (2011), Traneudstillingen (with TTC), Hellerup (2011), Maison du Danemark, Paris (2010), Berlin International Film Festival, Berlin (2010).

Tatjana Danneberg (b. 1991, Vienna) lives and works in Vienna. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She is interested in photography as a snapshot, a temporal "cut-out" that is contradicted by the use of a subjective painterly gesture, questioning the integrity of images, their authenticity, and their relationship to reality.

Her recent solo exhibitions include: Galeria Dawid Radziszewski, Warsaw, Louis Reed, New York (2022), LambdaLambdaLambda @ CFALIVE, Milan (2022), Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2021) and La Maison de Rendez-Vous, Brussels (2020). She participated in group exhibitions such as “I tried being myself and i ended being others”, curated by Mohamed Almusibli, Lovay Fine Arts, Geneva (2023), Neoclassical, RODEO, Piraeus (2022), Are Artworks Contemporary?, Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon (2022), All She Said About the Future, Biennale Zielona Góra, Zielona Góra (2020) and Un Barbare á Paris, Fondation D'entreprise Ricard, Paris (2018) .

Gu Lei (b. 1971, Shanghai) is an artist deploying drawing, painting and music as main media for his art practice. His works have been exhibited at “Shanghai 30 Years Contemporary Art Literature Exhibition, Unit 3: Reconstructing Contemporary (1992-2000)”, Ming Yuan Art Museum, Shanghai, 2018; “Poster”, Tao-Pu Modern Art Center, Shanghai, 2011; “The Bund of Shanghai 1979-2009”, 436 Jumen Road, Shanghai, 2009; “24:30”, Bizart Art Center, 2002; “Inertia and Disguise” Art on Paper Exhibition, Shanghai Oil Painting Sculpture Institute, Shanghai, 2000; “Supermarket”, Shanghai Plaza, Shanghai, 1999; “No. 310 Jin-Yuan Road”, Shanghai, 1998; “Wildlife”, OCAT Beijing, Beijing, 1997; “Let’s Talk About Money”, Hua Shan Art School, Shanghai, 1996; “Ape”, Hua Shan Art School, Shanghai, 1994. He has been member of bands A Pack of Mudan Cigarette and Another Pack of Mudan Cigarette (1998-2000), The Top Floor Circus (2002-2006), King of (2008-2010). He has been composing improvised music with Gao Xin since 2008. 

John Kelsey (b. 1946) is a New York-based writer, co-founder of the gallery Reena Spaulings Fine Art and a member of the artists collective Bernadette Corporation. His works have been exhibited at Prada Foundation (2021), Whitney Museum of Art (2015, 2012), Biennale de Lyon (2013) among other international institutions. 

His solo exhibitions include: The Pea Stakers", Galerie Buchholz, New York, 2021; Galerie Buchholz, Berlin, 2016; "The Canyons", Boltenstern.Raum, Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna, 2014; Galerie Buchholz, Cologne, 2013. 

Group exhibitions include: "Watercolors, Chapter II", Weiss Falk, Basel, 2022; "Watercolors, Chapter II", Weiss Falk, Zurich; "It's not what you think it is", Tramps, New York, 2021; "The Sun Also Rises", Jenny's, Los Angeles, 2021; "Stop painting", curated by Peter Fischli, Prada Foundation, Venice, 2021; "I Put A Spell On You: On Artist Collaborations", SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, 2020; "No Dandy, No Fun", Kunsthalle Bern, 2020. "Vom Leben in Industrielandschaften", Leopold-Hoesch-Museum & Papiermuseum Düren, 2019; "Breakfast All Day", Munchees, Reading, 2017; "…hounded by external events…", Maureen Paley, London, 2016; "Landscapes", Marlborough Chelsea, New York, 2016; "Open Source: Art at the Eclipse of Capitalism", Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris / Berlin, 2015; "Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner", Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2015; "∞", Edouard Montassut, Paris, 2015. "Significant Others (I Am Small, It’s The Pictures That Got Big)", High Art, Paris, 2014; "Batalhão de Telegrafistas", Galeria Jaqueline Martins, São Paulo, “2014; New Dawn", Silberkuppe, Berlin, 2014; "The Printed Room - read the room/you’ve go to", SALTS, Birsfelden, 2014; Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, 2013; "La Poussiere de Soleils", Real Fine Arts, New York (curated by Olivia Shao), 2013; Whitney Biennial 2012, Whitney Museum, New York, 2012; "Quodlibet III", Galerie Buchholz, Cologne, 2011; “After Shelley Duvall '72 (Frogs on the High Line)", Maccarone Gallery, New York, 2011, etc. 

Liu Wei was born in 1972 in Beijing, where he lives and works. His solo exhibitions include Long Museum, Shanghai (2020); Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland and Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio (2019); Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2016); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2015); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2014); Today Art Museum, Beijing (2011); and Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2011).

Group exhibitions include Moody Center for the Arts, Austin, Texas (2022); Busan Museum of Art, South Korea (2020); Smart Museum of Art and Wrightwood 659, Chicago (2020); Faurschou Foundation, Beijing (2018); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2017); Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2017); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2016); ArtisTree, Hong Kong (2016); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2015); Long Museum, Shanghai (2014); Lucerne Museum of Art, Lucerne (2011); Centre National d’art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, Paris (2010); Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago (2009); Mudam Luxembourg, Luxembourg, (2008); Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo (2007); MoMA, New York (2004).

Liu has participated in numerous biennials, including the 58th and 51st Venice Biennale (2019, 2005); 11th, 8th and 5th Shanghai Biennale (2016, 2010, 2004); 3rd Aichi Triennale (2016); 13th and 9th Biennale de Lyon (2015, 2007); Sharjah Biennale 11, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2013); 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st Guangzhou Triennial (2012, 2008, 2005, 2002); and 6th Busan Biennale (2008).

He won the Award of Art China for Artist of the Year (2016); the Artnet Artist of the Year and the Ambassador of Sino-Australia Cultural Exchange (2016); GQ China Artist of the Year (2015); Martell Artist of the Year (2012); and the Chinese Contemporary Art Award for Best Artist (2008).

Seth Price (b. 1973, East Jerusalem) is a New York-based artist working in a wide range of media, including sculpture, painting, photography, video, music, and poetry. Solo exhibitions include No Technique, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2019); Danny, Mila, Hannah, Ariana, Bob, Brad, MoMA PS1, New York (2018); Seth Price Circa 1981, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2017); Social Synthetic, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2017, toured to Museum Brandhorst, Munich, 2018); dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel, (2012); Seth Price, Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, Bologna (2009); Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich (2008); Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2008); and Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, England (2007, with Kelley Walker). Group exhibition venues include Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2021); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2019, and in 2014); Estancia FEMSA / Casa Luis Barragán, Mexico City (2019); Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai (2018); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2018); Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2017); Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen (2015); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2014); and Venice Biennale (2011). His work is held in various public collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Sammlung Goetz Collection, Munich; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, amongst others.

Pieter Slagboom (b. 1956, the Netherlands) is an artist living and working in Middelburg, the Netherlands. His larger-than-life drawings use a serene visual language that allowed invisible life forces to reach unfamiliar cathartic levels. The works suggested an understanding of identity as a fluid play between guidance, submission, death and renewal of subjects.

Slagboom’s solo exhibitions include: Bridget Donahue, New York, US (2020), Vleeshal, Middelburg, the Netherlands (2019), Spaceburo, Antwerp, Belgium (2015), Bytheway Projects, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2012), Zeeuws Museum, Middelburg, the Netherlands (1997), and Krammig & Pepper Contemporary, Berlin, Germany (2016). Group exhibitions include: Albada Jelgersma Gallery, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2019), Centre For Vosual Art, Design and Architecture, Middelburg, the Netherlands (2015), Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Schiedam, the Netherlands (2011), etc. His drawing projects “Parma Violet” (2010) and “Salt” (2017) were published by Revolver Publishing in Berlin.

Josh Smith (b. 1976 in Okinawa, Japan) is a New York- and Tennessee-based painter who also works with collage, sculpture, printmaking, and artist’s books. He first became known in the early 2000s for a series of canvases depicting his own name, a motif that allowed him to experiment freely with abstraction and figuration and the expressive possibilities of painting. His work has since given way to monochromes, gestural abstractions, and varied imagery, including leaves, fish, skeletons, sunsets, and palm trees that the artist has explored in series. Smith’s work engages in a celebratory and prolific project of experimentation and refinement—upending the conventions of painting while simultaneously commanding a deep awareness of its history.

His work has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions at museums and arts institutions in the United States and abroad, including at the Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany (2016); Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Rome (2015); Zabludowicz Collection, London (2013); The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Greenwich, Connecticut (2011); Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva (2009); De Hallen Haarlem, The Netherlands (2009–2010); Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna (2008); and SculptureCenter, New York (2004).

Smith’s work has also been included in important group exhibitions at institutions as Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Kunsthalle Wien, Museum Brandhorst, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 54th Venice Biennale, New Museum, etc.

Wang Jianwei (b.1958, Sichuan Province, China) lives and works in Beijing. Since the 1990s, he has been researching the influence of multiple sciences and interdisciplinary knowledge on contemporary art. Well-versed in philosophy, he draws from mathematics, data-collection methods, scientific experimentation, and neurology to develop a new language for art and to practice a cross-sector methodology. Such a vision illuminates his practice spanning new media, film, performance, painting, sculpture, and installation.

Wang was the FCA (Foundation for Contemporary Art) Grant Recipient in 2008. He was also awarded the 10th Martell Artist of the Year (2013), Robb Artist of the Year (2013), the 7th AAC (Award of Art China) Artist of the Year – Installation and Multi-media (2012), and the CREDIT SUISSE Today Art Award (2011).

Wang’s major solo exhibitions include: “Treading in Sludge”, MadeIn Gallery, Shanghai, 2022; “Always Being, But not the Whole”, Long March Space, Beijing (2021); “Time Temple”, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2014); “Yellow Signal”, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2011); “Welcome to the Desert of the Real”,  Sharjah Biennial & Beijing & Zurich & Basel (2010); Chambers Fine Art, New York (2007 & 2005); “Giant Steps”, Asia-Australia Arts Centre, Sydney (2004); Walker Art Center (2003).

His group exhibitions include: Upstairs Cities, ASE Foundation, Shanghai, 2023; Sharjah Biennial 15, Sharjah, 2023; “START”, Start Museum, Shanghai, 2022-23; “We Borrow Dreams from Others, Like Debt”, MadeIn Art Museum, Shanghai, 2022-23; “The Arts of Memory”, OCAT Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China (2021);  “Cosmopolis #1.5: Enlarged Intelligence”, Centre Pompidou, Chengdu, China (2018); “Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World”, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2017); “What About the Art? Contemporary Art from China”, Qatar Museums, Doha, Qatar (2016); “Art of Change: New Directions from China”, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London (2012); “Edge of Elsewhere”, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Australia (2010); “Facing Reality”, National Art Museum of China, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna, Austria (2008); “China Contemporary”, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam, Netherlands (2006); “China Now”, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2004); 50th Venice Biennale (2003); 25th Sao Paulo Bienal (2002); “Translated Acts”, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin & New York Queen Art Museum, New York (2001); documenta X, Kassel (1997).

Angharad Williams' (b. 1986, Ynys Môn, Wales) multi-faceted art practice - painting, drawing, writing, sculpture, photography, installation, film and performance - attends to the forms that, hidden in plain sight, serve as projective screens or filters for our most subconscious desires and fears. These often equivocal expressions are shaped by issues of authority, security and design, and are central to the subjectivation of individuals, their communities and the landscapes they inhabit. By engaging with these themes, Williams prompts introspection and critical reflection on the dynamics that govern our lives and environments.

Her solo exhibitions include “Life and Times", Kantine, Brussels, Belgium, 2023;"NEW TECHNOLOGY, FANTA MLN", Milan, Italy, 2023; "Eraser", Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany, 2022; "Picture the Others", MOSTYN, Llandudno, Wales, 2022; "Something is better than nothing, or?", Solo project, Halle Für Kunst, Lüneburg, Germany, 2021; "High Horse", Kevin Space, Vienna, Austria, 2021; "Without the scales", Schiefe Zaehne, Berlin, Germany, 2020; "Witness", Haus Zur Liebe, Schaffhausen, Switzerland, 2019; "Island Mentality", Peak, Elephant and Castle shopping centre, London, UK, 2019; "Scarecrows", Liszt, Berlin, Germany, 2018. 

Her solo performances and screenings include Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland, 2021; Archivio Conz Collection, KW, Berlin, Germany, 2020; ICA, London, UK, 2019; Kehlam Island Museum, Sheffield, UK, 2019; CCA, Glasgow, Scotland, 2017; Tate St Ives, Cornwall, UK, 2017, etc.

Artist, Curator, MadeIn Company Founder. 

Xu Zhen was born in 1977, and lives and works in Shanghai. Xu Zhen has been considered as an iconic figure in Chinese contemporary art. In 2004, Xu won the prize for ‘Best Artist’ at the China Contemporary Art Award. His practice covers various media such as installations, video, painting and performance, etc. 

Xu Zhen has exhibited internationally, at museums and biennales, such as, Venice Biennale (2001, 2005), The Museum of Modern Art (New York, 2004), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, 2005), MoMA PS1 (New York, 2006), Tate Liverpool (2007), Hayward Gallery (London, 2012), Lyon Biennial (2013), Armory Show (New York, 2014), Long Museum (Shanghai 2015), Al Riwaq Art Center (Qatar, 2016), Sydney Biennial (2016), Guggenheim Museum (New York, 2017), Sharjah Biennial (2019), Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, 2019), National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, 2020), among others. 

Aside from being an artist, Xu Zhen is also a curator. He co-curated together with other artists major exhibitions in Shanghai and was one of the initiators of Art-Ba- Ba (www.art-ba-ba.com), a leading online forum for discussion and critique of contemporary art in Shanghai, in 2006. In 2009, Xu Zhen established ‘MadeIn Company’, a contemporary art creation corporate, focused on the production of creativity, and devoted to the research of contemporary culture’s infinite possibilities. In 2013, MadeIn Company launched XU ZHEN® which is committed to art creation and cutting-edge culture development. In 2014, MadeIn Company established MadeIn Gallery and in November 2016 launched the first “XU ZHEN Store” in Shanghai. 

Born in 1970 in Yangjiang, Guangdong province, where he currently lives and works, Zheng Guogu graduated from the printmaking department at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1992.

Zheng Guogu’s artistic practices utilize a wide range of media in order to express the extensive diversity of the ideas he develops in connection with the processes of life. In 2000, Zheng Guogu initiated The Age Of Empire ( from 2012 onward, he changed the name from The Age of Empire to Liao Garden) , a constantly evolving utopian domain that provides  a setting for his experimentations rooted in Chinese philosophy. The project integrates complicated spatial modalities and social relations, which comprise the entire process of dwelling in a physical space, from the conceptual ideal, to the practical implementation, to day-to-day living. In his recent works based on the research on life’s energy, Zheng Guogu tries to reveal the energy flow lurking in the process of perception, the vibration of color frequencies is closely related to the workings of human arteries and veins, as well as the operation of the universe. Furthermore, the vibration is the tempering of an existential insight. Zheng Guogu is also one of the founding members of Yangjiang Group, an artist collective focusing on experimental Chinese calligraphy, founded in 2002 in Yangjiang.

Zheng Guogu’s principal solo exhibitions include: Zheng Guogu: Visionary Transformation, MoMA PS1, New York, 2019; Zheng Guogu: The Winding Path to Trueness, Mirrored Gardens, Guangzhou, 2017; Zheng Guogu: Ubiquitous Plasma, OCAT Xi'an, Xi’an, 2015. He has participated in international exhibitions and bienniales including: The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of  Contemporary Art (APT9), The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Queensland, Australia; Social Factory - 10th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, 2014; Farewell to Post-Colonialism - 3rd Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou, 2008; Documenta 12, Kassel, 2007; Canton Express in Zone of Urgency, 50th Venice Biennale, Venice, 2003.

The awards he received include: 2002 CCAA Chinese Contemporary Young Artist Award, the winner of 2006 CCAA Chinese Contemporary Art Reward, 2010 Transform History Academic Award, 2011 Chinese Jiaozi youth leaders, 2016 first artnet Annual Art Award.