What could be nicer than spending the day in Shanghai exploring private art museums with Chinese artist Chen Hangfeng? Chen Hangfeng has had international shows, speaks perfect English and has an “insider’s perspective” on Chinese art — not to mention, a wonderful sense of humor.
I felt compelled to visit Shanghai at this moment because there are many new private art museums that have recently opened and I was eager to see as many as I could. I was also invited to the opening of the new home of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, a beautiful concert hall designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki.
The Rockbund Art Museum
The Rockbund Art Museum was our first stop since it was quite near our hotel, The Peninsula. Ugo Rondinone’s “Breathe Walk Die” is on view until January 2015. It features 40 living clowns in various positions throughout the space. It is the artist’s first ever solo exhibition in China. Of the exhibition, Rondinone said: “Since 2007, all my exhibitions were either black and white or had different shades of brown colors. This is one of the reasons that this time I would like to do a very colorful exhibition, where I combine different color works from the past and present into one unifying exhibition.”
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