Three behemoth shows opened in Shanghai last week, all taking over a triptych of massive riverside spaces - Long, YUZ and Power Station of Art - and depending on what it is you’re after, definitely recommended. We’re talking Swiss modern master Alberto Giacometti, Danish-Icelandic art superstar Olafur Eliasson, and Chinese champion of the monumental, Huang Yongping. Spanning sculpture and solitude, rainbows and magic, as well as brutally-decapitated taxidermy, Shanghai’s got you covered this springtime. ***

Alberto Giacometti: Retrospective @ YUZ Museum

March 22-July 31, 2016 Price: 120rmb on weekdays, 150rmb on weekends The Alberto Giacometti retrospective at YUZ is pretty sensational: curated by the Fondation Giacometti in Paris and apparently the largest ever exhibition of its kind, in Shanghai, such superlatives don’t cheap, with tickets pitched at a pricey 150rmb a time during the weekend, and 120rmb weekdays. But for what’s on show here, the elegance of installation, and above all, fascinating contextulization of Giacometti’s significance in art history, it’s worth it. Things kick off with portraits of the artist as a child and young man by his painter father, Giovanni, and godfather Cuno Amiet. From here, exhibits wend round to Giacometti’s dalliances with Cubism, and later, Surrealism, where a penchant for the elongated figures he later became so well known for gradually came to the fore. Fittingly for a man so obsessed - he once said, “I spent my whole life trying to create a decent head,” - one section is entirely given over to just that. Ranging from minuscule to life-size, round to flat like a fish, they’re mostly modelled on the artist’s brother, Diego. There’s drawings of heads, too, intimate and seemingly spontaneous in blue biro. Giacometti was all about visual perception: to “represent someone not as one knowns them, but as one sees them.” Seeing and perception take center stage through a series of portraits of the artist by a who’s who of his photographer pals, including Man Ray, Brassaï, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Henri Cartier-Bresson, all memorializing the quasi-mythical status Giacometti’s art, circles and studio lent him. A highlight of the exhibition, that legendary Montparnasse studio is reimagined at YUZ though films, photographs and roughly-hewn creations all set in a gallery-size replica. The main event is a collection of large-scale sculptures occupying half of the museum’s massive central hall, including striding, solitary and ageless Walking Man. The seminal work captures everything Giacometti geeks get so excited about: no matter whether viewed from up close or afar, the sculpture still captures that distance - actual or remembered - at which Giacometti first glimpsed his subject. The same goes for dollhouse-sized works’ mesmerizing play on dimension, texture and depth. Curiously enough, and securing Giacometti’s ongoing resonance, once you’re rid of those physical trappings of detail and perspective, what’s left becomes timeless. Go see. ***

Olafur Eliasson: Nothingness is not nothing at all @ Long Museum

March 20–June 19, 2016 (Open until 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays) Price: 150rmb Further along West Bund’s cultural corridor, Long Museum presents China’s first major retrospective of Danish-Icelandic artist, Olafur Eliasson. All immersive environments, technical wizardry, light and shadow, it fits beautifully into this cavernous space: be it projected rainbows onto exposed concrete walls, or angled mirrors to offset that central hall’s arched ceiling, Long Museum feels just right for Eliasson. Starting as it means to go on, the show opens with one of several new works created especially for the exhibition. The open pyramid is just that: a ginormous pitched aluminium frame, lined with reflective panels on each of its four sides, and lit via a spotlight positioned above an open apex. Look up for weird reflections in a virtual space, and marvel at the sheer enormity of this massive project. Mirrors, light and permutations thereof are a mainstay throughout the show, casting shadows, making rainbows and creating all kinds of weird effects. Particularly magical is upstairs installation, Color Experiment: like an arty science experiment, it beautifully demonstrates both the scope and fallibility of eyesight and light. Continuing the elemental gist of what’s on show here, other works elevate water to effects that are super striking. Be it giant melting ice cubes (whose likelihood of surviving the duration of the show seems unlikely), or mesmeric bouncing bubbles, Eliasson exalts and extrapolates everyday phenomena to stunning effect. A veritable visual feast, Nothingness is not nothing at all is jam-packed with immersive artworks to ooh and ahh over, many of which scream “SELFIE!” All in all, it’s a fun show, and worth the still steep 150rmb ticket price. ***

Huang Yongping: Baton Serpent III: Spur Track to the Left @ PSA

March 18–June 19, 2016 Price: 20rmb Last but definitely not least, Huang Yongping’s gigantic installations are currently on show at Power Station of Art. Tickets are a snip at just 20rmb a pop: that’s exceptional value, and a bargain that makes those private museum shows feel like daylight robbery. Anyway, this one’s a big deal: it was put together by Hou Hanru, one of China’s superstar curators and Artistic Director of the MAXXI in Rome, Italy. The exhibition was initially conceived for that space, before traveling to Beijing and now descending on Shanghai where it opened last week. Huang Yongping was integral to China’s New Wave movement in the 1980s, and was also a founding member of the Xiamen Dada group of artists. In 2005, he represented China in the Middle Kingdom’s official debut at Venice Biennale, and has gone on to show at major institutions around the world. Known for big art in bigger spaces, 25 of Huang Yongping’s installations created over the past 20 or so years are on show at PSA until June. Things kick off with brand new work, Head: comprising a train carriage precariously suspended at a 30-degree angle, railway tracks and headless taxidermy animals, it makes quite the impression. Decapitated creatures, incidentally, feature throughout the show. If you’re wondering where their unfortunate heads have wound up, look no further than upstairs’ work Chef for skewered skulls hidden behind a blood red curtain. Religious motifs abound here, most notably via the show’s namesake work Baton Serpent. A fearsome 32-meter long aluminium skeleton, it alludes to the Staff of Moses story in the Old Testament’s Book of Exodus. Christianity, Islam and Buddhism all coexist in the exhibition through works exploring their respective conflicts, contradictions and narratives. Especially striking is Ehi Ehi Sina Sina, an enormous Tibetan prayer wheel spinning atop a 12-meter high pole. Distracting from any connotations of peace and reflection is its clunky-looking pendulum, swinging precariously from an equally chunky chain. Visually arresting and pleasingly provocative, Huang Yongping’s Baton Serpent III comes highly recommended. For all of that and more, check the art calendar for a round up of Shanghai’s ongoing exhibitions. * More ongoing art exhibitions on SmartShanghai's Art Calendar