exhibitions dates
17-20 may 2012

Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
hall 3 / level 3 / booth 3X14

This exhibition focuses on the reconstruction of a constant developing system of cultural concepts and symbols.
It shows the changes, in landscapes, in portraits, in oneself. The technique of work involves the repeated actions and transformations of the painting to reach a never ending cultural interpretations and reinterpretations.
The works presented are reconstructed ink paintings on rice paper, an installation work in the centre of the booth and a performance by Dai Guangyu .

Dai Guangyu became one of the leaders of the New Art Wave Movement of Sichuan at the end of the 80’s. His strong cultural and educational environment has made the artist particularly aware on social and cultural issues that he has been faithfully researching, analysing and depicting throughout his entire career.

_____________________
* Wèi Jì (未濟) is the 64th and last hexagram of the I-Ching (classic of change book). Translated in English by "Still in Crossing", its other variations include “Not Yet Fording”, "Before Completion" and "Not Yet Completed".
http://en.wikipedia.or g/wiki/I_Ching
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching_hexagram_64#Hexagram_64

more information:
ifa- gallery.com/exhibitions/arthk12

Dai Guangyu's artworks
Dai Guangyu's biography

exhibitions dates:
21 april - 24 june 2012

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curated by Zane Mellupe

artists exhibited

• Dai Guangyu 戴光郁
  
• Deng Yu 邓瑜
  
• Liu Bolin 刘勃麟
  
• Shao Shao 少少
  
• Wang Xiaofeng 王小峰
  
• Zhang Xianyong 张宪勇
  
• Zheng Jing 郑靖
  
• Zhu Ye 朱晔

more information:
ifa- gallery.com/exhibitions/somethingincommon

exhibitions dates
29 march - 1 april 2012

"investigation no. 2: Facing Distance"  is the second of a series of exhibitions organised by ifa gallery at Art Paris. This second section requires certain proximity, an express physical distance from which to observe the artworks, and a key mental distance to identify the content.

The physical and narrative nature of the artworks shown in this exhibition evokes connections to and between “the other side”, “the opposite side”, “the inside”, “the back side”, and “the non- functional side”.

artists exhibited

• Li Rui
  
• Pham Ngoc Duong
  
• Wu Junyong
  
• Liu Bolin
  
• Gao Brothers
  
• Dai Guangyu
  
• Zane Mellupe
  

more information:
ifa- gallery.com/exhibitions/artparis12

exhibitions dates:
11 february - 8 april 2012

What do we leave behind us? What is left behind for us?

Whatever you do for yourself or others right now will have an impact, be it today, tomorrow or even yesterday. Whatever you are drawing at Time “T” is read and interpreted at “T+1”. What happened at “T”, can also be revisited at “T-1” with a different insight. Events, places, things and people become evolving history or History.

Time, whether it is still or moving, is the common denominator of the collection of artworks by Dai Guangyu, Zane Mellupe, Wu Junyong in “Trace, Line, Shadow”.

Dai Guangyu leaves behind an evolving trace, drawing fading characters with ink on the icy lakes of Beijing. For him it is “the physical evidence of time in occasions [which is] the questioning of life, existence and meaning in the context of time”

Zane Mellupe reproduces the still frames of her film on steel structures, as a work of art made to be practical and useful.  But the viewer is also required to provide the tempo, the speed of time, of the film sequence. “The steps behind him made a continuous mark called Line, but maybe a Lion”, she writes. Do we have to look back?

Wu Junyong is representing shadows of our minds, our unconscious or, not. These dark scenes represented in his mixed media works are “the world of shadow […], which is the projection of a dark community”.

The exhibition at ifa gallery aims to provoke the viewer into pondering the events of time, as a consequence of our minds and one of our contemporary world community.

by Alexis Kouzmine-Karavaïeff, ifa gallery director ● Shanghai, february 2012

more information:
ifa- gallery.com/exhibitions/tracelineshadow

exhibitions dates:
11 february - 8 april 2012

Believing in genetics. Each species is programmed to preserve and spread certain genetic materials that are passed on from one generation to the next. If one applies this same logic while observing the existence of certain virtues, values and esthetics, then one can grasp how Christin Kalweit’s work preserves and projects a very refined attention to details, not only in terms of the esthetics of her works but towards the whole thought process and the subjects observed.

In the exhibition, “There is no innocence only different levels of responsibility”, Christin works with razor wire that rolls and floats within a space, its nature seems to be so harmless, with a childlike purity. It has no intention to cause any damage, it appears to be too soft and too cute to reveal its true purpose and function.

The refined blades / our words / thoughts / decisions / actions / reactions just keep on rolling un-noticing / neglecting the traces left behind.

by Zane Mellupe, curator ● Shanghai, february 2012

more information:
ifa- gallery.com/exhibitions/thereisnoinnocence

in collaboration with YK art [Shanghai]

Happy New Year of the Dragon!
新年快乐的龍！

the gallery is opened by appointment only from 23 to 27 january 2012

exhibitions dates:
07 january - 05 february 2012

How have concerns about global climate change affected gardeners and their behaviors?

What's Bugging Your Houseplants?
Houseplants pests can be a problem in the winter warmth of your home.You couldn't do this work without your support!

Edible Landscaping
Ideas for growing vegetables, herbs, fruits, and edible flowers.

Talk to the gardener at ifa gallery from 7th January – 9th February.

more information:
ifa-gallery.com/exhibitions/gardener

in collaboration with YK art [Shanghai]

exhibitions dates:
26 november - 20 december 2011

The new version
The use of collage

My work is inspired by articles and / or images found in newspapers, magazines and old journals. I use collage as a way of infusing contemporary elements into my work. This word, phrase or picture then becomes the framework of the piece. Finding the right images to make the work appear as a single unit can be tedious and challenging, however I believe this process gives the artwork texture, depth and a familiar historical perspective by which the  viewer navigates and understands the piece.

Ships, seas and situations

Water has been on the mind of many. The floods in Thailand, Angola and Bangladesh, Pirates in Somalia, Tsunami in Asia, oil rigs explosions, ocean liners in Venice & the running aground & breaking apart of a container ship off New Zealand. We have witnessed waters majesty and power. The sea, although calming and still, is often menacing and destructive.

Sea journeys, ocean voyages, and water. Throughout history, ships have transported slaves, goods, people, war and hope. An ocean liner or sailing ship may conjure up memories of vacations, romantic journeys or connections with separated loved ones.

These mixed medium paintings on paper respond to and reflect the seas ability to hold us. Each piece incorporates photos from newspapers, magazines and journals. The use of photo collage plays a significant role in shaping the images of our past. I use photo collage to manipulate this view and challenge our images of the sea.  My work aims to draw the viewer into a space for thought and reflection.

-- Robert Lee Davis

more information:
ifa-gallery.com/exhibitions/differentspecies

in collaboration with YK art [Shanghai]

exhibition dates:
26 november 2011 - 05 february 2012

exhibition

“solution?”  (title of the exhibition from 25 august to 9 september 2011)
“what is the name? solution?” (title of the exhibition from 10 september to 26 november 2011)
“other thoughts?”   (title of the exhibition from 27 november -….)

Wang Xiaofeng, Zhang Liaoyuan, Shao Yi and Audience

This exhibition challenges the idea of an “exhibition” by showing a progress of changes and development – that goes through a thought process of artists and results – or not results - in an art piece; in an art exhibition. Artists are taking time for rethinking and reformulating a very art piece itself, extending it to making of an exhibition – questioning the margins for a practice’s beginning, middle and end. What is a completed  creative process? Is it possible to complete a process? Is it the perception of a viewer that defines the completion?

How does an artist see his art in an exhibition environment / space?

The visible start of this exhibition was 6 months ago – it has been changing its form and direction. It is meant to be changing. What you will see is not a final product, it is a growing organism, in which things are allowed to not be finished, but to be re-thought, changed and re-interpreted.
Repeated attendance of the show would be highly recommended and even required in order to observe the process and rethink your own opinions.

Wang Xiaofeng
measures the decibels of alertness, the noise of laughter. Is it enough to rethink only one’s own life – or should we care about the system also?

Zhang Liaoyuan
reveals the role of digital software, which influences the creation of perceptions of beauty and aesthetics, creating new paths in visual language.

Shao Yi
looks for the function and the lack of function, the useful and the useless, the praise and the celebration of a tool. There is no space for self evidence.

an exhibition curated by Zane Mellupe

more information:
ifa-gallery.com/exhibitions/solution

exhibition dates
05 november - 13 november 2011

ifa gallery is proud to announce its participation to Shanghai Gallery Selection at Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC). Zane Mellupe's artworks will be exhibited in a mini-exhibition named "scene - and two of them walking".

For the 3 year anniversary of SWFC, seventeen galleries have joined the SWFC Shanghai Gallery Selection event which runs from 5 to 13 november 2011, coordinated by Office339 . Shanghai's top contemporary art galleries will gather in Pudong to show the best of today's art scene.

organizer: SWFC
curator: Kenta Torimoto (Office339)
co-curator: Lise Li (Vanguard Gallery)

galleries:
18Gallery, AIKE-DELLARCO, Art+ Shanghai Gallery, ART LABOR, Don Gallery, Eastlink Gallery, ifa gallery, James Cohan Gallery New York / Shanghai, Leo Gallery, m97 Gallery, Other Gallery, OV Gallery, Pearl Lam Galleries, Shanghai Gallery of Art, ShanghART Gallery, stage候台BACK, Vanguard Gallery

SWFC Shanghai World Financial Center , 2F Convention Area
No.100 Century Avenue, Pudong New Area, Shanghai
上海环球金融ߑ 3;&# 24515;2F
多功能展示厅—浦 ;
9996;新区世纪大道100ࡥ 5;
+86-21 3867 2008
www.swfc-shanghai.com

à la Galerie Nathalie Gas & Bernard Guillon (Paris 8ème)

dates d'exposition
13 octobre - 19 novembre 2011

Le thème de cette exposition « Être Chinois » n’est pas seulement une interrogation « d’étranger », c’est celle de beaucoup de Chinois, notamment de beaucoup d’artistes que nous rencontrons.

artists exposés

• Fan Jiupeng
• Tong Yan Ru’nan
• Mao Tongyan
• Li Rui
• Yang Xun
• Shao Shao

Je ne suis pas Chinois mais Fan Jiupeng, Tong Yan Ru’nan, Li Rui, Yang Xun et Shao Shao le sont, évidemment. Mao Tongyan, alias Zane Mellupe, c’est une autre histoire. Mais l’être Chinois de la guerre de l’opium, de la révolte des Boxers, de la guerre sino-japonaise, de la Longue Marche, du Grand Bond en Avant, de la Révolution Culturelle, du développement économique forcené, de la Place Tian’An Men, des Jeux Olympiques, est-il le même aujourd’hui ? Je ne pourrai jamais l’affirmer avec certitude mais je le pense. Les Chinois de l’étranger se considéreront toujours comme des Chinois ; moi je serai toujours un vieil étranger (laowai) que je sois à Shanghai, à Paris ou à Durban.

En saurons-nous davantage avec cette exposition ? Je ne le crois pas, mais ce que nous apprendrons, c’est que les Chinois eux-mêmes se posent en permanence, de façon quasi obsessionnelle, la question de leur identité.

textes complets et plus d'informations au sujet de l'exposition:
ifa- gallery.com/exhibitions/jesuischinois

exhibition dates
22 september - 27 november 2011

independent project as part of the 4th Guangzhou Triennial
Guangdong Museum of Art, 3/F

curators: Zhang Yun and Zhang Kexin

shown artists include Richard Streitmatter-Trần and Phạm Ngọc Dương

exhibition dates
17 september - 20 november 2011

“Right Eye, Left Leg” is an exhibition at ifa gallery presenting three artists, who are exploring genre of portraiture, each of them using very specific techniques.

Li Rui’s characters are painted inside glass using a mirror technique which references the Chinese naiveté realism of miniature within glass paintings. Li Rui, with her young spirit, takes a more social anthropological approach by pulling the ‘masks’ off people, unveiling their social constraints, and revealing what lurks behind their superficial needs and ideals.

Using a technique of transparency and double interpretation of portraitures, Fan Jiupeng, influenced by his former teacher and great artist, Liu Xiaodong, represents relationship through expressionism with a touch of surrealism. Expressionism is portrayed on one side of huge transparency tracing papers, while the perspective becomes surrealist on the other side. The viewer travels from the reality of a scene to an imagination of the same scene by looking at one side and then the other of the same painting on a single sheet of paper.

Dai Guangyu’s reworking of his materials, his technique of drawing and tearing, reconstructing and redrawing is a new approach to painting on rice paper. He recreates his self portrait piece by piece in a decrypting manner. As he faces the public, he looks straight into the viewer’s face, approaching intimacy and a keen awareness of you – the viewer.

an exhibition curated by Zane Mellupe and Alexis Kouzmine-Karavaïeff

more information:
ifa-gallery.com/exhibitions/righteye- leftleg

happening date
11 september 2011

Feeling intoxicated by exhibitions, and art?
Feeling tired and exhausted?
After the most difficult days of SH Contemporary when even a little seems too much, find your inner relief from art at ifa gallery.

• Art cupping therapy (báguàn)
• Art spooning therapy (guāshā)
• Art psychotherapy (bring your artwork)

Dispensed by specialists at ifa gallery on 11 september from 4 to 8pm.

concept by Zane Mellupe, as part of her personal exhibition at ifa gallery,
"in memory of the perfect wife", finishing the same day.

exhibition dates
09 july - 29 august 2011 (extended to 11 september)

This new ironic, conceptual and personal exhibition will be showing mixed media photography and installation works.
Zane Mellupe focuses on the observation of visual thinking, distortion of memories, layers of consciousness, and resemblances, shown in the four parts of a recreated home: the living room, the kitchen, the bedroom and the closet (in four rooms of the gallery).

Mellupe, working and living in Shanghai, has an extensive background in photography. Her works have undergone diverse development from documentary photography, found images, self-observation, photo and video integration to installations.


more info:
www.ifa- gallery.com/exhibitions/inmemoryoftheperfectwife