Shanghai
Qiu Anxiong: “Nostalgia”
Bund 18 Creative Center
As evidenced by the title of his solo exhibition, Qiu Anxiong is an artist who dwells simultaneously in the past and the present. In “Nostalgia,” Qiu combined the themes of memory and urbanization in a site-specific installation, in which he scrutinized the ghost towns surrounding Chengdu, the results of the Township and Village Enterprises system, an initiative by... [more]

Mumbai
Praneet Soi: “Juggernaut”
Project 88
Masked figures each posed in dramatic isolation predominated in “Juggernaut,” Praneet Soi’s recent exhibition of painting and sculptural installations. An ongoing trope in Soi’s work, these hollowed eyes and concealed expressions are the starting point of... [more]

Bern
“Horn Please: Narratives in Contemporary Indian Art”
Kunstmuseum Bern
India has undergone profound social changes since the rise of new information technologies sparked spectacular growth in the 1990s. The show’s title, “Horn Please,” refers to the ubiquitous, quaintly polite signs on the back of Indian trucks asking drivers to honk before overtaking. As a guiding theme, the title evokes... [more]

London
“Good Morning, Mr. Nam June Paik!”
Korean Cultural Centre UK
The inaugural exhibition at London’s new Korean Cultural Centre (KCC), “Good Morning, Mr. Nam June Paik!” presented works by 24 contemporary Korean artists. One of Korea’s most famous contemporary artists, Nam June Paik (1932-2006) (see AAP Vol. 3, No. 3, AAP 29, 49) is regarded as the founder of... [more]

New York
Xu Zhen: Just Did It
James Cohan Gallery
Aspiring superpowers—whether countries or artists—share grandiose ambitions that betray hubris rather than serve as an actual measure of accomplishment. The young Shanghai artist Xu Zhen (see AAP 54) satirizes such follies in his conceptual practice which, typical for a young artist, isn’t medium-based but often ends up taking form as... [more]