Published by Charta. Text by Fan Di’an, Chiba Shigeo, Huang Du, Pi Li, Peng De, Gary G. Xu.
Chen Wenling (born 1969) is one of China’s most influential contemporary artists. Including notes on Wenling’s artistic process and self-documentation, this publication considers his daring and innovative sculpture, installation, photography and manuscripts from the last 20 years.
PUBLISHER Charta
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 6.75 x 9.5 in. / 192 pgs / 154 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 12/31/2013 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2013 p. 186
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9788881588701FLAT40 List Price: $39.95 CDN $50.00
Farmers, Floaters, Taxi Drivers, Artists, and the International Art Mob Challenge and Remake the City
Published by Blue Kingfisher. Text by Mary-Ann Ray, Pi Li, Robert E. Mangurian, Darien Williams.
This study of Caochangdi, one of more than 300 urban villages in the city of Beijing, tells a story about itself and its 4,000-7,000 mostly illegal residents. Caochangdi contains the problems and possibilities of new urban space at a time when cities house 50 percent of the world's population.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 6 x 9 in. / 450 pgs / 325 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 10/31/2009 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2009 p. 145
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789881752246TRADE List Price: $24.95 CDN $27.50
Published by Blue Kingfisher. Edited by Pi Li. Text by Pauline J. Yao, Chris Dercon, Ken Lum, Ruth Noack.
Accompanying the sixth annual Contemporary Chinese Art Awards exhibition, this catalogue offers images and texts on works by Liu Wei (outstanding artist), Tseng Yu-Chin (outstanding young artist) and Ai Weiwei (lifetime contribution). It is bundled with a monograph by Pauline J. Yao, recipient of the CCAA award for independent art criticism.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher
BOOK FORMAT Slip, Paperback, 2 vols, 5.75 x 8.25 in. / 276 pgs / 160 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 4/1/2009 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2009 p. 148
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789881752291TRADE List Price: $50.00 CDN $60.00
Published by Blue Kingfisher/Boers-Li Gallery. Edited by Waling Boers. Text by Pi Li, Philip Tinari, Gao Shiming.
This volume tracks the evolution of young Beijing-based artist Liu Wei as he enters the second decade of his career. Works include a model cityscape made of oxhide, a collection of exercise equipment inside a steel cage and an atrium built of old doors and windows.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher/Boers-Li Gallery
BOOK FORMAT Hardcover, 9 x 9 in. / 139 pgs / 90 color / 1 bw.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 4/1/2009 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2009 p. 178
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789881714329TRADE List Price: $50.00 CDN $60.00
Born in 1963 in Hebei Province, China, Yang Shaobin makes realistic figurative paintings that often disintegrate into Francis Bacon-esque Surrealism. An untitled work from 2007, for example, depicts a man's head floating disembodied on a large dried-blood-colored canvas. The top of the man's head is rendered realistically, but the bottom half of his face is obfuscated by expressionistic whirls of paint. "DNA" (2005), however, is a Social Realist-style tableaux of historical figures arranged in front of a bright blue sky. Though he began his career as a realist, Yang began experimenting with this present hybrid of realism and abstraction in 1998. Critic Sebastian Preuss has written of Yang's style: "His deep pictorial pathos impressively contradicts Neo-Pop, which predominates in all Western countries..." This oversized, slipcased volume is a survey of the highlights of his work to date, and includes an essay by critic Pi Li.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher
BOOK FORMAT Slipcased, 10.75 x 14.25 in. / 246 pgs./ 200 color / 100 bw.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 3/1/2008 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2008 p. 167
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9787543459670TRADE List Price: $90.00 CDN $110.00
Published by Blue Kingfisher. Text by Ai Weiwei, Pi Li.
This volume is the most comprehensive look at Beijing-based painter Liu Xiaodong, who was born in 1963, to date. Articles, interviews and essays are accompanied by high quality, fold-out reproductions of his most significant pieces in this beautifully-designed volume. As the title suggests, Liu paints from life--drawing from the rich history of the practice in Chinese art. Eschewing any sense of romanticism about his subjects, Liu approaches his fusion of landscape painting and portraiture pragmatically. "Eighteen Soldiers Between Mainland and Taiwan" (2004), for example, is a horizontal painting segmented into eight sections, each of which contains a full-body portrait of a soldier staring impassively at the viewer or into the distance; each stands against a different background: a horizon of sea and sky, tanks and bunkers, trees and barbed wire. Included are texts by artist Ai Weiwei and curator Pi Li.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher
BOOK FORMAT Slipcased, 14.5 x 10.25 in. / 705 pgs / 200 color / 100 bw..
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 3/1/2008 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2008 p. 155
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9787536233003SDNR30 List Price: $120.00 CDN $145.00
Published by Blue Kingfisher. Edited by Lin Dong, Lin Nan. Text by Chen Tong, Pi Li, Fan Di-An, Pi Daojian, Wei Qingji. Interview by Gou Xiaoyan.
Beijing-based Wei Qingji resuscitates the centuries-old practice of ink and wash painting. His graphic style flies in the face of any questions about the relevance of this venerable Chinese tradition, while managing to obliquely address contemporary social concerns. This volume contains over 100 images and an essay by critic Pi Li, among others.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 8.25 x 11.25 in. / 136 pgs / 80 color / 25 bw.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 3/1/2008 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2008 p. 167
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789889926496TRADE List Price: $32.00 CDN $40.00
Published by Blue Kingfisher. Edited by He Hao. Interviews by Britta Erickson, Pi Li.
The work that first brought the contemporary Chinese photographer Xu Yong to the attention of the international art world was 101 Hutong Portraits, a book-length collection of traditional Beijing street scenes. In Backdrop, Xu Yong collects two bodies of "souvenir" photographs--one taken in Tiananmen Square and the other in front of Shanghai's super-modern Oriental Pearl Tower. Because of the way that Xu Yong lights and frames his photographs, at first glance one can hardly tell if the cultural landmark in the background of each picture is an actual architectural monument or a backdrop screen from a commercial photography studio. Indeed the settings are real. And the people that this rising star captures--including children, teenagers, young sweethearts, married couples, mothers and sons, middle-aged tourists, multi-generational families and groups--offer riveting psychological and sociological studies of modern Chinese culture. Often enigmatic, they have a rare, magnetic pull that keeps you looking.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 9.5 x 9 in. / 236 pgs / 60 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 4/1/2007 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2007 p. 120
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789889901516TRADE List Price: $30.00 CDN $35.00
Published by Blue Kingfisher. Text by Bernhard Fibicher, Ah Cheng, Zhao Li, Pi Li.
Painter Ji Dachun's poetic use of pencil, ink and white space has always resonated with traditional Chinese portrait painting. But the satirical content of his work remains as contemporary as it is compelling--whether taking on Picasso, Duchamp or the male anatomy. In this beautifully designed, beautifully printed monograph, each work takes as its inspiration a well-known tale, popular advertisement or television commercial upon which the artist transposes his own ironic take. With subversive wit, Ji Dachun examines the complex rapport between the East and the West, infusing his paintings with a grotesque sense of humor and a serendipitous sensibility. Keeping with the precedent of his earliest paintings, esoteric compositions of lines and amorphous forms heavily influenced by the American artist Cy Twombly, Ji Dachun here works with pencil and gouache to create finely detailed images with a bite. A sophisticated and delightful gift book, as well as a serious study.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher
BOOK FORMAT Clothbound, 8.75 x 10 in. / 96 pgs / 45 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 7/1/2007 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2007 p. 132
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789889960926TRADE List Price: $40.00 CDN $50.00
This monumental volume highlights the esteemed Estella Collection of contemporary Chinese art, with works spanning from 1966-2006. At more than 450 pages, and standing more than 13 inches tall by 10 inches wide, it features an abundant supply of lavish full-spread images and remarkable details of work by virtually every major contemporary Chinese artist to have contributed to the pivotal, revolutionary moment that has lasted from the 1970s until today. Some of the contributing artists include Wang Keping, Huang Rui, Ai Weiwei, Cai Guo-Qiang, Cai Jin, Feng Zhengjie, Wenda Gu, Huang Yong Ping, Rong Rong and Inri, Su-en Wong, Xu Bing, Yue Minjun and Zhang Huan. The breadth of work collected within the covers of this catalogue is so far unrivalled in quality and range. With impeccable scholarship for specialists as well as a lucid and accessible introduction for the wider public.
Published by Walther Konig/Jahrbuch Fur Moderne Kunst. Edited by Waling Boers, Pi Li, Brigitte Oetker.
In a 2007 article in The New York Times, David Barboza wrote about recent record-breaking auctions of Chinese art, "With auction prices soaring, hundreds of new studios, galleries and private art museums are opening in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai…Western galleries, especially in Europe, are rushing to sign up unknown painters; artists a year out of college are selling photographic works for as much as $10,000 each; well-known painters have yearlong waiting lists; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Pompidou Center in Paris are considering opening branches in China." This fifty-third issue of the respected Cologne-based, English-language art journal Jahresring is an in-depth study of what's happening in Chinese art today, as well as a penetrating look at where the new trends and ideas have come from, and where the market stands. With equal emphasis on images and text, this essential survey features artists such as Ai Weiwei, Big Tail Elephant Group, Cai Guoqiang, Huang Yongping, Sze Tsung Leong, Qui Zhijie, Xu Bing, Xu Tan, Xu Zhen, Yang Fudong and Zhang Xiaogang, among many others, and includes critical texts by international art world luminaries like Thomas Bayrle, Jonathan Monk, Christian Jankowski, Erik van Lieshout, Mark Siemons, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Stephanie Tasch and Philip Tinari.
Published by Blue Kingfisher. Essays by Carol Lu, Pi Li, Yinghua Lu and Adele Tan.
For his 1993 Wall, Wang Peng built a solid brick barrier at a gallery entrance. This, the one and only piece of work in the show, put him in the midst of China's tense cultural and political atmosphere, and the gallerist, under pressure, asked him to remove it a day later. Wang Peng, who was born in the 1960s, migrated to the States in the mid-90s, but returned to China again in 2000. His performance-based happenings have included locking his audience in an exhibition space without warning and taking up residence in a pavilion by the moat of the Forbidden City in Beijing. His photographs have featured images of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Chairman Mao as well as Tiananmen Square. Here, in response to the figurative tyranny of the scientific method, he's fragmented male and female nudes, inserting slivers of each into test tubes lit from behind, and lined them up on the walls of the exhibition space, preserved and showcased as samples in a lab.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher
BOOK FORMAT Clothbound, 8.75 x 11.25 in. / 47 pgs / 40 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 8/15/2006 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2006 p. 131
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789889868086TRADE List Price: $30.00 CDN $35.00
Published by Blue Kingfisher. Edited by He Hao. Essays by Britta Erickson and Pi Li.
Here? Or There? is the lucky culmination of many factors, a happy illustration of structural changes in the development of contemporary art in China after 2000. Wang Gongxin and Lin Tianmiao's cooperation evolved from a common interest in the body and in landscape: Lin Tianmiao's complex patchworks of body parts and other apparatuses turned out to be a perfect match for Wang Gongxin's video work, which brings the bodies and apparatuses alive, makes them appear on the street, in a wasteland, and in the changing, disappearing urban landscape. Here (or Here or There) the body and landscape share a context and virtuosic representation.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher
BOOK FORMAT Hardcover, 8.75 x 11.5 in. / 143 pgs / 100 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 8/15/2006 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2006 p. 132
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789889868079TRADE List Price: $75.00 CDN $90.00
China is booming! In the wake of economic liberalization, the nation's art scene has taken flight as well. The Swiss collector Uli Sigg, formerly his country's ambassador to Beijing, has followed the rapid pace of development since the 1980s, compiling along the way the world's largest collection of contemporary Chinese art, comprising more than 1,200 works by some 180 artists. Mahjong, named after the popular and ancient Chinese game of chance, presents more than 200 paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, video pieces and installations from Sigg's collection. Alongside them hang such curiosities as vintage Mao posters. In addition to a number of internationally famous works, such as Ai Weiwei's Han vase with Coca-Cola logo, Fang Lijun's bald heads or Xu Bing's “Xinglish” calligraphy, this book also offers readers a unique opportunity to discover tremendously gifted artists still largely unknown outside China.
Caochangdi, Beijing Inside Out
In Production Mode, Contemporary Art in China
Liu Wei: 2006-2007
Yang Shaobin: Chinese Artists of Today
Liu Xiaodong: Painting From Life
Wei Qingji
Ji Dachun
China Onward The Estella Collection: Chinese Contemporary Art, 1966-2006
Touching the Stones
Wang Peng
Wang Gongxin & Lin Tianmiao: Here? Or There?
Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art From The Sigg Collection