Galerie Urs Meile participates at Art Taipei for their first time. The gallery is engaged internationally in the presentation and dissemination of contemporary art and operates from two locations: Lucerne (Switzerland) and Beijing (China). They will be presenting a selection of recent works by emerging and established artists from China and the West working in different media including installation, sculpture, photography, video and painting:

Among other works by Ai Weiwei (*1957), they will exhibit Porcelain Cube. The artist executes the simple shape of a cube in the finest porcelain, a centuries old tradition in China. Formally, the work refers to minimalism and conceptual art, both important trends in Western art.

The gallery will also present works by Cheng Ran (*1981), an emerging artist who specializes in the medium of video, while also extending his artistic practices towards installations and objects. He is currently participating in the Rijksakademie residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He recently published his first novel, Circadian Rhythm, which – among other works – will be presented at the fair. Furthermore, the artist’s video, The Sorrows of Young Werther, will be presented as part of the Art Taipei 2013 Art Video Project.

Li Dafang (*1971) experiments continually with different carrier materials for his paintings. Big Road vividly recalls his childhood memories and the environment where he grew up. His proficiency and individuality are embedded in the way that he brings memories of existing landscapes together with abstract elements.

Untitled by Qiu Shihua (*1940), who holds a singular position within Chinese contemporary art, will be presented. He questions the concept of visiblity in painting. Visualization and imagination would help to approach his works, thus in this sense, seeing becomes an interplay of perceptions.

Our presentation will also include nocturne VI by Julia Steiner (*1982), a young Swiss artist who participated in the gallery’s artist-in-residence program in Beijing in 2009. She is interested in condensations, blank spaces and states of transition. Her works mainly deal with mental landscapes, delivering dynamics and energies to the audiences.

Galerie Urs Meile will present untitled (in spring) by influential Chinese contemporary painter Wang Xingwei (*1969). Through decades of exploration, he has created an artistic universe all of his own, where references collide, characters recur, and styles proliferate. He recently had a major retrospective show at UCCA (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art) in Beijing.

They will also exhibit Arty, Super-Arty by Yan Xing (*1986), one of the most prominent emerging artists in China. The artist, who was short-listed for the Future Generation Art Prize (Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev), explores multi-layered projects encapsulating media such as performance, video, photography and installation.

-Galerie Urs Meile

Image: © Ai Wei Wei