Art Review
Present Tense Biennial: Chinese Character

By Claire Light | May 05, 2009

The VIP opening for the Present Tense Biennial: Chinese Character show at the Chinese Culture Center was slated for 6:30pm. But a cordon of CCC staff and board members and local politicoes — plus curator Kevin Chen and (presumably) all the artists present — barred a packed lobby-ful of attendees from the gallery for an hour, giving speech after speech (and issuing city supervisor-signed certificates). When the gallery finally opened, the entire audience rushed into the exhibition space like a small boar down a boa constrictor’s throat. Worse: the snakelike gallery (entrance at the front, exit at the back) was blocked at the exit end, encouraging viewers to linger in the galleries socializing after they’d finished looking around. It was impossible to see the work.

I go into such gory detail because the scene illustrates the glorious contradictions of mounting a show like Present Tense Biennial. The Chinese in me was amused at the necessity of making sure the city graced this new enterprise, and making sure everyone involved was given face, publicly. The contemporary art viewer in me was annoyed as hell that I had to wait around and then try to see the show through crowds of schmoozers. At the moment, I have little information about how this marriage was arranged, or where the self-proclaimed “biennial” will go in two years. All I know is that, by its very circumstance, the show is both a meld and a clash of three different approaches to representing community. Read More »

Present Tense Biennial: Chinese Character 現在時雙年展
Presented by Chinese Culture Center in collaboration with Kearny Street Workshop
May 1, 2009 6:30 PM – VIP (CCC members & Donors) & Invited Guest Special Preview

Free to public on view from May 2nd – August 23rd
Special website: www.presenttense.us

In the hands of 31 contemporary artists from China and throughout the U.S., San Francisco’s Chinatown becomes a laboratory of diverse ideas about contemporary Chinese culture in a new exhibition at the Chinese Culture Center.

“a multitude of favorites in this diverse and absorbing show”, Subjunctive, Hideous Sunday

“Convey Your Truth”, The California Report, aired on NPR

“Vibrant, political, poetic, and challenging…Go see this show!!!” – Marisa Nakasone, SF Art Examiner

“A fine exhibition all the way around… Definite go see.”, ArtBusiness.com

“a perfect embodiment of a transitional moment in American racial politics” - Claire Light, KQED Arts

“I’m also delighted to see that it hasn’t been curated along predictable lines of authenticity and/or ethnicity. ” — Jenifer K Wofford

“I’m looking forward to seeing Sean Marc Lee’s paternal portraits, Fang Lu’s answer to hyphy, Thomas Chang’s American twist on Jia Zhangke’s 2004 The World, Litang Liang’s revisions of calligraphy, and a video piece by sometime Guardian contributor Sergio de la Torre.(Huston)” San Francisco Bay Guardian

“Top pick!” – Examiner

San Francisco Weekly

“it’s going to be a really cool, fasinating exhibition,” Angry Asian Man

“is going to be kick-ass,” wiqaable.com

“…[the Present Tense Exhibition] won’t leave you intellectually hungry” – Shotgun Review

“A wonderfully diverse exhibition…” – SFStation

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The first in a series of online exhibitions for cccGallery.org, Afterlife celebrates diverse views on spirituality and mortality. Images submitted from several different counties explore life transitions and can currently be viewed on the Chinese Culture Center homepage, www.c-c-c.org.

We invite you to share thoughts and reviews of Afterlife by joining cccGallery.org to post member comments. Afterlife will start from March on www.c-c-c.org and March 21 to June 21, 2009 at the Mills Building (220 Montgomery Street).

Find more images like this on Chinese Culture Center Online Gallery

Lecture & discussion:
Time: April 12, 2009 from 2pm to 4pm
Location: Chung Tai Zen Center of Sunnyvale
Street: 750 East Arques Ave.
City/Town: Sunnyvale
Website or Map: http://sunnyvale.ctzen.org/
Contact Info: 408.733.0750 Read More »