green trash

798 Art Zone, Beijing, June 2009.

There were tons of artists whose work I loved and whose names I wrote down. They included the artists Xue Zheng (for his digital paintings) and Liu Rendao, and the photographers Yang Yankang, Wang Wenlan, and Lou Jiaxiang. Sadly, had a hard time finding anything about them on Google without knowing the Chinese characters.

But the landscape photographer Chen Fuli is particularly amazing, as well as the others exhibited at at the 798 Photo Gallery. The featured exhibit was Chen's work combining painted figures on his landscapes, and they are awesome.

Interestingly, we saw a lot of artists selling t-shirts and bags with Communist Party logos and symbols on it that, given the setting and the vibe, were clearly meant ironically. As much of a tourist attraction as the 798 Art Zone has come to be in recent years, you can feel the subversive undercurrent, with real stakes attached.