Location: Chinese Culture Center on Floor 3M

中華文化中心藝術雙年展

( 本報記者江智慧三藩市報道 )

三藩市中華文化中心現正舉行當代藝術家聯展，展期至8月23日止，這個名為「現在時雙年展：華藝先鋒」，包括31位各國年輕新進藝術家，將華人主題以攝影、影像、油畫、動畫、雕塑及裝置藝術等藝術型式呈現。

其中一些參展藝術家簡介如下：參展女性藝術家崔斐生於山東濟南藝術世家，現居紐約。獲浙江藝術學院油畫學士學位，在國內常畫泥巴路和石塊，作品風格凝重。 1996年美國留學，自由的教育體制改變了她的藝術風格，從平面油畫走向裝置藝術。有一次她搬家，發現地下的小樹枝像中國書法的筆觸，她因而開始用樹枝創作裝置藝術。 Read More »

Auditorium Reserved

Auditorium Reserved

From: http://www.artbusiness.com/1open/050109.html

Chinese Culture Center: Present Tense Biennial – Chinese Character .

Artists: Tamara Albaitis, Nancy Chan, Anita Wen-Shin Chang, Julie Chang, Thomas Chang, Sergio de la Torre, Cui Fei, Justin Hoover, Bu Hua, Arthur Huang, Suzanne Husky, Khiang H. Hei, Larry Lee, Sean Marc Lee, Liting Liang, Lucy Kalyani Lin, Ken Lo, Fang Lu, Maleonn, Elizabeth Moy, Ming Mur-Ray, Tucker Nichols, Nadim Sabella, Zachary Royer Scholz, Indigo Som, Charlene Tan, Patrick Tsai, Imin Yeh, Xudung Yu, David & Michelle Yun. Curated by Kevin B. Chen.

Comment by AB: Thirty-one artists from the Bay Area and beyond essay on contemporary Chinese culture. A fine exhibition all the way around, with high points including Suzanne Husky’s regimented rendition of workers in a Chinese factory interior, a column of blue and white porcelain bowls reaching to the ceiling by Larry Lee, a walk-through sound installation by (not sure), and to remind us of how much garbage we generate, a cornucopia of fast food restaurant throwaways set against two tall walls papered with Chinese restaurant take out menus (not sure who this one’s by either). Penty more good stuff too, and special added bonus– more art and installations appear in storefront windows throughout Chinatown. Definite go see. Read More »

Chinese Cultural Center and Kearny Street Workshop: Present Tense Biennial

Vibrant, political, poetic, and challenging,the Present Tense Biennial, coordinated by the Chinese Cultural Center and the Kearny Street Workshop, speaks volumes about contemporary Asian/American identity. Curated by Kevin B. Chen with Abby Chen and Ellen Oh, this exhibition assembles work by thirty-one artists from the bay area and abroad in response to contemporary Chinese Culture. After viewing several bay area exhibitions of work by native Chinese artists (major shows at SFMOMA and BAMPFA), I was pleased to behold an Asian American response to the challenges of identity and shifiting political currents as it relates to cultural heritage at the Present Tense Biennial.

Cui Fei is a Chinese artist that exhibits actively in the United States. Pictured above is a detail from a large wall installation, Manuscript of Nature V. From afar, the installation has the appearance of a calligraphic manuscript with its stroke-like sense of movement. Upon closer examination however, one realizes that each “character” is a unique sculpture informed by the natural formation of twigs. Language and its conventional, evolving nature is a running theme in this show and Cui Fei’s lyrical installation poignantly explores the illusory and mutable qualities of written word in relation to the timeless structure of nature.

Tamara Albaitis adds a sonic dimension to Cui Fei’s dialogue on language through her interactive installation consisting of two hanging grids of speakers–each mini-speaker emitting an element of speech (a vowel, a consonant, a dipthong). Not only does the grid format allude to the way we attempt to structure our thoughts through language and the lined formatting of written compositions, it also (through the collective, babel-esque sounds of this piece) deconstructs the conventions and notions of power attached to language/speech.

(Image: Cui Fei, Manuscript of Nature V. Image via Chinese Cultural Center Online Gallery)

Thomas Chang’s series of photographs taken from Splendid China Theme Park in Orlando, Florida reframe the meta-Chinese Monuments (see the architectural wonders of China at 1/10th the size!) such that the images take on a surreal appearance of both authenticity and artifice. In this way, Chang’s photography incisively highlights the disjunction between cultural legacy and historical tourism and the resultingly muddled messages this sends to the public.

(Thomas L. Chang,

Great Wall

. Image via: Chinese Cultural Center Online Gallery)

The tension between artifice, material production, and cultural/personal perception is another running theme in the show. In Lucy Kalyani Lin’s The Yangtze, a neon light that mimics the curves of the Yangtze river; mounted upon a series of mirrored cubes–evoking visions of the China’s neon-lit urban centers (Shanghai immediately comes to mind) and the notion of the river as a symbol of economic livelihood. Zachary Reyer Scholz’s work adapts a similar theme: by mounting cubic forms on flat mirrored surfaces (milk cartons, cinder blocks), these mundane forms take on the illusion of increased depth and formal complexity–the multiplied grid-like images suggest construction foundations and the steel frames of industrial growth. Other highlights include Indigo Som’s wall installation of Chinese restaurant menus <1% and Charlene Tan’s black and white, paper cornucopia overflowing with photo-copies of fast-food containers from China, entitled The Good Life.

I enjoyed each and every piece of this exhibition so thoroughly that I visited twice–I also recommend checking out Imin Yeh’s patterned appliances installed in storefronts at 710 Kearny St. and taking a close look at Liang Liting’s surreal ink paintings.

I leave you with this haunting photograph by Maleonn. The piece pictured above is entitled Nostalgia #4. His poetic statement about his series on view at the CCC is both enigmatic and profoundly revealing–and I think, a fitting way in which to grasp the wealth of exciting work in this exhibition:

Then, the pure smile of the leaving youth, the lost and broken love, the way that cannot back down, and the lonely hurricane, the nights and the desolate dream, the endless distance, and the weak house of ideals, will finally be mercilessly shattered by time, and grinded into smoke and ashes. In the most private corner of everyone’s heart, it gradually piles up to the secret pain permeated into the deepest feelings, and one hears nostalgia

Indeed, the works produced here by artists young and old, of various ethnic backgrounds, conjure up a sense of collective nostalgia, of loss, of disjunction–however, that an exhibition like this exists and opens itself up to public discussion lends the work in this show an over arching bid for hope and critical engagement.

Go see this show!!!

Chinese Cultural Center; 750 Geary (in the Hilton, 3rd floor). Gallery Hours: Tuesdays – Saturdays 10 am to 4 pm
Sundays 12 noon to 4 pm. FREE ADMISSION.

A new Nike basketball shoe launched last weekend at a storefront in Chinatown. In the window display is an ad campaign and Yelp reviews featuring the shoe’s endorser, a street ball phenom named K. Lo, known as “Yellow Fever,” who taught Lakers star Kobe Bryant his best moves.

Artist Ken Lo outside the Chinatown storefront that’s home to his “Lucky Feet, Happy Shoes” pseudo-shop, part of the Present Tense Biennial. (Lacy Atkins / The Chronicle)

The name of the store, on the awning and on T-shirts in both English and Chinese, is “Lucky Feet, Happy Shoes,” but good luck trying to shop there. The storefront is just a front and the shoe exists in the mind of its creator Ken Lo. So does “Yellow Fever,” and so does his relationship with Kobe.

“If I can pull this off, people will walk past this shoe store and never think of it as art,” says Lo, creator of the installation. “They’ll think of it as a store featuring some shoe from a guy they’ve never heard of.”

That guy would be Lo, who is 5 feet 7 inches and never got past playground hoops. “I can hold my own against sixth-graders,” he says. But that didn’t stop him from creating a fantasy life as K. Lo.

“What artists do, primarily, is they manifest what they most want to see in the world,” says Lo, “and something I did want, I did dream about, is that Kobe Bryant was my best friend. But the piece is not about Kobe. It’s just a good entry point.”

The installation is among eight vacant shops taken over by artists participating in “Present Tense Biennial: Chinese Character,” a group show of 31 artists presented by the Chinese Cultural Center in collaboration with Kearny Street Workshop. The main exhibition is in the concrete Hilton, where two commercials, one 30 seconds, the other two minutes, will entice viewers to “Lucky Feet” at 704 Kearny St., across from Portsmouth Square.

Lo, who works full time managing an architectural signage firm in the Bayview district, did not get any funding support for his artwork. He paid for it out of pocket. He has a point to make, and the point is “you don’t matter unless you have a name,” he says. “And you’re not a name that means anything unless you have a shoe.”

Lo is perhaps more basketball-obsessed than most artists. When working on his projects at his apartment uphill from the Tenderloin, he has the NBA playoffs on with the sound off. This is how his grandparents introduced him to the Los Angeles Lakers. They didn’t need the sound because they came from Hong Kong and didn’t understand English.

Like any kid will, he became infatuated with his favorite player. But in his case, the player, Bryant, was a few months younger than Lo, who is now 30. Lo’s devotion to Kobe followed him from West Covina (Los Angeles County), where he grew up, to San Francisco, where he entered art school. For his master’s of fine arts final project at UC Berkeley, he dimmed the lights and premiered a 12-minute video in which the character K. Lo is a tattooed rapper, whose dunks in Kobe’s face attract the attention of two slinky chanteuses, shaking booty to the thumping. Asked where he got the models for that, Lo calmly admits that he played those parts himself, and also the character of his mother.

“Cross-dressing and dancing like a fool makes me a bit queasy,” he says, “but I think it was emotionally sincere.”

So is he a video artist? Painter? Collage artist? Actor? Female impersonator? Lo ponders the question. “There are a lot of people who paint because they are really good at painting,” he says. “I just happen to be good at self-deprecation. So I will call myself a ‘dilettante at different medias.’ “

Fashion designer would be another. “If I had more time, I’d find a shoemaker in China and commission them to make a shoe,” he says. So what happens if somebody sees the display model and has to have the Asian Invasion?

“If that happened,” he says, “maybe I’ll make them a shoe and sneak it over to them.”

Present Tense Biennial: Chinese Character: Runs through Aug. 23 at the Chinese Culture Center, 750 Kearny St. Maps to storefront installations are at the gallery and online at www.c-c-c.org. (415) 986-1822.

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 »

中華文化中心藝術家聯展揭幕

(本報記者江智慧三藩市報道 )

三藩市中華文化中心歷來最大規模的展覽「現在時雙年展：華藝先鋒」，昨晚正式開幕，邀集31位新一代年輕當代藝術家聯展，三藩市參事邱信福、州眾議員 Mark Leno、中華文化基金會主席蔡流輪、州眾議員馬世雲代表謝漢屏、市長辦公室代表等人皆到場，連同三藩市中華文化中心總監鄧式美、項目總監陳暢等人剪綵，場面熱鬧。鄧式美希望該展可以引發社區對當代中國的探討，也期待灣區民眾不只前來欣賞，更可帶動民參與、加入傳承。

三藩市中華文化中心雙年展開幕，鄧式美（左）及陳暢合影於裝置藝術。 「現在時雙年展：華藝先鋒」，由今日起至8月23日，展出31位各國年輕當代藝術家作品，將華人主題以攝影、影像、油畫、動畫、雕塑及裝置藝術等型式呈現。現場可以看到家庭主題、飲食主題等。

鄧式美表示，希望社區中的老中青年代民眾皆來欣賞，中華文化中新希望敞開大門，與社區進行更多面向的交流。陳暢也說，欣逢五月亞太傳統月，以及五四運動九十周年，此次集合不同國家的藝術家看他們眼中的中國。年代已不同，希望更跳脫國籍、種族框架。貴賓們皆祝賀展出成功。

參展的藝術家包括岑至廉、崔斐、李荊山、方璐、張凌生、梁麗婷、羅文驎、葉艾明、塔瑪拉、陳曼玲、張文馨、張維倫、胡智騰、卜樺、黃介彥、Suzanne Husky、李煥庭、馬良、林冠瑩、Elizabeth　Moy、張賢明、Tucker Nichols、夏漢強、Nadim Sabella、Zachary Royer　Scholz、Charlene Tan、蔡仁杰、雲明正、雲翠蘭等。

展場在三藩市中華文化中心畫廊，以及六個散佈在華埠的街邊櫥窗。開放時間為每周二至周日上午11時至下午4時。地址在乾尼街750號，希爾頓酒店三樓。可上網www.c-c-c.org或電415-986-1822。