A visit to Minsheng Art Museum Jane Jin Lu
I visited Minsheng Art Museum on 6th, April. Minsheng Art Museum is
located in the Red Town in West Huaihai Road. It is the first
contemporary art institution in Shanghai which is funded by a private
bank: Minsheng Bank. Now the ongoing exbihition is Trilogy: Liu Wei
Solo Show. Guo Xiaoyan is the curator of the show. The young artist
Liu Wei is one of the most active and dynamic artists working in China
today. "Trilogy" brings together works created by Liu Wei from the
past two years, including large-scale on-site installations, sound
installations and oil paintings.
"Trilogy" has three parts: Golden section, Merely a mistake and Open
the door. In the first exhibition area, masses of wooden furnitures,
steps and hangings all have the horizontal lines and vertical lines
which have golden ratio: 1:0.618. In the Merely a mistake exhibition
area, oil paintings named Meditation attracted the audience. The
colours of the paitings varied from black, grey, brown to red, orange
and pink. There are lots of colour lumps to show the process of
meditation. In the third exhibition area, old TV sets made a sound of
power on and power off unexpectedly. On the TV sets' screens, white
lights appeared within the sound of power on and off.
Micro politics, the confrontation of body and power, visual expression
and limited rights of power – these are the issues that Liu Wei takes
on in his work. His works often involve from the careful observation
of the techniques of conditions of survival, space and material
objects, alienation and the undercurrents of existence.
Visitors were fascinated by the show and really enjoyed it. Most of
the visitors are Westerners. But I think more and more local citizens
will come to visit this wonderful art museum.