thanks to everyone who came by last night to celebrate Chris Gill's beautiful paper works. The crowd was interesting and fun, our office went into madness!

The show is up till next Sunday, May 12.

2012/5/5 team, Alek, Anna and Susanne

There was a big wooden box full of paper works. We broke the lock and dug in and pulled out more then 300 drawings for careful viewing.

Chris Gill stored them for years and some of them date back 20 years ago. We will show them end of this month for the first time. 

Tonight in Paris 9 pm will be the annoncement of the ARTE prize 

with Chris Gill nominated!

今晚9点在巴黎 ARTE奖项即将揭晓！

艺术家李云飞李云飞荣获提名。

Jury 评委:

Fabrice Bousteau, directeur de Beaux Arts magazine 《directeur de Beaux》艺术杂志

Matali Crasset, designer 设计师

Fabrice Hergott, directeur Musée d'Art Moderne

Camille Morineau, conservateur au Centre Pompidou

Isabel Marant, créatrice mode

Emelie de Jong, Directrice de l'unité Arts et Spectacle d'ARTE

Angelina Medori, Déléguée aux Actions Culturelles d'ARTE

For Immediate release  及时发布                                                                                     

stage候台BACK  Gallery curatorial direction for Cut/Log 2011

The curatorial direction for stageBACK’s first participation at an art fair in Europe revolves around globalism societal and cultural exchanges. German owned and Shanghai located, stageBACK has concentrated on these zeitgeist facts since its inauguration in 2008 and has been working with various international and Chinese artists.

The artworks presented at the cutlog art fair break the rule that separates western art and Chinese art. What exactly is Chinese contemporary art? Is it a specification because the artist holds a Chinese passport? Or is there room for consideration to name a British born artist  living and working in China since 20 years a Chinese artist (Yunfei  Li 李云飞)? The so called western artists who have traveled to China and often stay to work, pick up Asian influences that appear in their works and show how the Chinese society is perceived by foreign eyes (Gordon Chandler, Thomas Palme). In this rapidly changing society and fast traveling times the difference becomes blurry and Western elements blent easily within the surroundings of Shanghai.

 American artist Terence Lloren's mission is to complete an entire sound collection of constantly changing Shanghai and the noises that come with it. Visitors at stageBACK's booth are invited to tag a 2D barcode with their smartphone  that will upload a webpage with additional info about the booth and different recordings made in public spaces in Shanghai. This interactive technology makes it possible for the visitor to listen to the sounds of this never sleeping metropolis.

Further on, stageBACK’s interest is to identify young local talents and is proud to present 26 year old Xiaowen Tang’s 2000 year old technique "Gong Bi" paintings for the first time in Europe.

- Gordon Chandler (sculpture)

- Yunfei  Li 李云飞 (sculpture and painting)

- Terence Lloren 罗天瑞 (sound)

- Thomas Palme (works on paper)

- Xiaowen Tang 唐潇雯 (painting)

Western Style Contemporary Chinese Art or Chinese Style Contemporary Western Art: On the Art of Chris Gill

西方式的中国当代艺术或中国式的西方当代艺术------谈李云飞艺术

by Pu Jie. Translated from Mandarin by Gary Sigley

The early 1990s were an important period in the development of contemporary China. It was also the beginnings of modern Chinese art. The art of this period is typically known in art circles as ‘modern art’.

At that time a group of avante garde Chinese artists began to live near Yuanmingyuan (Garden of Perfect Splendor) in Beijing. The artists rented simple abodes from the local farmers to act as studios. In the strict definition of the term we can say that artist studios in China began to gradually make their appearance at this time [that is, private artist studios as opposed to facilities provided by the government to artists on the state payroll]. It is a moment of profound historical singificance [for the history of contemporary Chinese art]. This event initiated the spontaneous emergence of an artistic collective in China. Most of the artists were focused on exploring and creating modernist art. Hence for the modernist art of the early 1990s this period is laiden with special meaning. Since that time up till the present almost every artist who stayed at Yuanmingyuan went on to become an important artist of the modern Chinese art scene.

However, what is not so well known is that at this time in the early 1990s Chris Gill [Chinese name Li Yunfei李云飞], an artist, originally from England, also lived near Yuanmingyuan. For the time this was something quite unique. It should be known that throughout the 1990s most Chinese artists aspired to pursue their art in Western countries and thus played particular attention to modern Western art. The reason for this is that in the early 1990s in terms of the concept of modern art and its style, in China there was still much that was unknown and the majority of Chinese artists didn’t have a clue as to what was modern art in the first place. However Chris Gill, as a Western artist, choose to reside and create his art in China. Moreover, he lived with the Chinese artists and together explored the world of modernist art with them.

Perhaps something may be said of his special status as both an art journalist and an artist. This dual identity endowed him with insights into modernist Chinese art just at the moment of its inception. Maybe this is the reason why, as he participated in the first stages of modern Chinese art, from beginning to end he developed a unique understanding of modern Chinese art. I have often felt this way when conversing with him.

This year marks the thirtieth year of modern Chinese art. Overall it is still the experience of modern Western art that is the point of departure in the practice of Chinese style modern art. During this process, as a Western artist of long term residence in China, Chris Gill naturally has reactions quite different from Chinese artists. It would be fair to say that he is both a witness to thirty years of modern Chinese art and an active participant.

What marks Chris Gill’s art out as different from his Chinese contemporaries is that it has neither the style of modern Chinese art nor the style of modern Western art. His art orginates from his experiences growing up in South Africa and his English heritage. These two influences make up the starting points for his art and are also the basic visual style of his work. Indeed his youth in South Africa constitutes the‘DNA’of his art and without doubt his art has clear South African cultural influences, perhaps even some for of indigenous African culture which brings out‘The roots’ of his art.

Yet in any case Chris is an Englishman and all his work is influenced by Western culture and indeed by clear concepts of modern Western art. Even after twenty years of life in China this particular aspect has not changed. But at the same time his art is not wholly Western. Afterall he has been living in China for twenty years and the imperceptible influence of this on his work must be recognised.

At the beginning of the 21^st Century modern Chinese art is facing the world and gaining much attention. Just as in the case of the Chinese artists who went to reside and develop in the West, this will no doubt encourage many Western artists to come to China to pursue their art.  In this regard Chris Gill’s art, created as it is within China, is itself a manifestation of China’s internationalisation. That is, modern Chinese art embraces the world and at the same time Western artists come to China. With the continued development of Chinese modernity and the internationalisation of modern Chinese art, this interaction will become more widespread.

On this point Chris Gill is a pioneer. His art was formed in the early 1990s in Beijing’s Yuanmingyuan and then further developed in Shanghai. He was born in England and has South African memories. Therefore  we can say of his art that it is both Western style modern Chinese art and Chinese style modern Western art.

11^th August 2011, Shanghai.

Gary Sigley (b.1970, Australia) hails from southeast Queensland where he studied Chinese language and society at Griffith University completing his doctorate on China's population policy in 1996. He has been working at The University of Western Australia since 1997 and calls Perth home. These days his time is split between Western Australia and China.

Chris Gill - bu wending - uncertainty - mixed media (high speed trains on double happiness cigarette boxes in suitcase with 3 small canvases. 2010. This piece will be presented at the CUT/LOG art fair in October 2011 in Paris