2008-07-10 at James Cohan Gallery

Mining Nature

James Cohan's first Shanghai exhibition focuses on the increasingly apt theme, man's changing relationship to nature. We've got some HUGE names in this show including (but not limited to)Robert Smithson, Bill Viola, and Wim Wenders. Opening 6pm-8pm. James Cohan Gallery, a New York-based contemporary art gallery established in 1999, is pleased to announce the launch of our new gallery in Shanghai, China, opening July 2008. The Director of the gallery, Arthur Solway, who has relocated to Shanghai from New York, explains that "The goal of this new gallery is to cast itself as a place of progressive ideas from around the world. James Cohan Gallery Shanghai plans to show the most dynamic international artists - including those already well-known in China, such as American artist, Bill Viola, and Korean video pioneer, Nam June Paik - to those who are just being introduced here, such as American sculptor, Roxy Paine, and Nigerian-born artist, Yinka Shonibare, MBE. We hope to help expand the audience for Western contemporary art in China and to bring a culturally diverse contribution to both the people of Shanghai and those who visit the city from points worldwide."

James Cohan Gallery Shanghai is located in the heart of the French Concession and occupies the ground floor of a 1930s villa set inside a lane on Yueyang Road. The 3,000 square foot gallery space has retained its original Chinese and Art Deco detailing. Adjacent to the gallery is a large meditation garden for outdoor sculpture installations and performances. A culturally rich neighborhood, the French Concession is home to the gallery's neighbors, the Shanghai Opera House and the Shanghai Institute of Chinese Painting. The beauty of the gallery's architectural space in this historic district underscores the relationship that Shanghai, with its cosmopolitan and international character, has maintained as the gateway to China for the West. For this reason, it provides an ideal site for James Cohan Gallery's new venture in China.

James Cohan Gallery Shanghai will mount six exhibitions per year. Plans include presenting solo exhibitions that feature distinctive visions as well as group exhibitions organized along a uniting theme. James Cohan Gallery Shanghai will inaugurate its new space with an exhibition entitled Mining Nature, opening on July 10th and running through August 31st, 2008. The exhibition, which features a number of artists from the gallery roster, will address the question of man's changing relationship to nature. In a world in which the "real" - either virtual or actual - has become muddied, where genetic engineering is possible and environmental change is alarmingly rapid, the very definition of nature is complex. Through works created by artists from the 1960s onward, Mining Nature will examine the presence of the natural world in contemporary art. Artists included in the exhibition will be Ingrid Calame, Yun-Fei Ji, Jeff Koons, Richard Long, Roxy Paine, Yinka Shonibare, MBE, Robert Smithson, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Fred Tomaselli, Bill Viola, and Wim Wenders, among others.

In addition to an ongoing program of exhibitions at the Shanghai gallery, James Cohan Gallery will participate in major Asian art fairs including; Art Taipei 2008, August 29th through September 2nd, where we will present all new media works by artists such as Japanese animator, Hiraki Sawa, and American video pioneer, Bill Viola; as well as ShContemporary 2008, September 10th through 13th, where we will showcase a new work from Bill Viola's Ocean Without a Shore series, first shown to great acclaim at the Venice Biennale 2007.

To contact James Cohan Gallery Shanghai director, Arthur Solway, please write to asolway@jamescohan.com or telephone +86 1582 119 1184.

For further information about the exhibition schedule, please contact Jane Cohan at jane@jamescohan.com or telephone 212-714-9500. Listed by Melanie

We've tagged this event with: Photography, Intl. Contemporary Art, Installation / Multi-media, Chinese Contemporary Art, Art,