From kung fu to concrete, flowers to photo-realism, herewith our top picks for a slice of arts action this month...
Shaolin Dancing Warriors @ Beaugeste Gallery
It will come as little surprise to visitors to Beaugeste's current show, Shaolin Dancing Warriors, to learn that the artist behind the large-format photographs, Isabel Muñoz, carved her name through capturing the elegance, movement and passion of dance. Instead of pirouettes and twirls, however, here we have the power, poise and surprising peacefulness of Shaolin Kung Fu. The Spanish talent traveled to the Shaolin Monastery back in the late '80s and early '90s, photographing practitioners of the ancient artform as they breathed new life into what was left largely desecrated after the Cultural Revolution. Put simply, they're remarkable: gravity-defying and suspended in midair, or elsewhere, all sinewy, muscley and taught, a monk balances on head with apparent ease... Were it not for the occasional blur of movement, viewers could easily be fooled into thinking these stunning shots were down to digital mastery – that they're not makes them all the more impressive. Be sure to dwell on the monks' faces, eyes in particular: focused, calm and composed, they're in stark contrast to the dynamic magic of the Kung Fu itself. Definitely worth a visit.
Movements @ Other Gallery
Continuing the kung fu theme for now, our next stop is Other Gallery, tucked away in the M50 warren. They're hosting the first China solo of German photographer, Martin Klimas, and do you know what? It's really rather good: refreshingly simple, clever in its approach and very, very engaging, this one comes highly recommended. Most eye-catching is the Kung Fu Warriors series: porcelain figurines (Made in China, no less), dropped from a height of three metres, their moment of impact captured in a brief one seventh of millisecond. The resulting 'temporary sculptures' are literally explosive, fleetingly awesome and full of movement. Facing the action on an opposite wall are photographs from Klimas' newest project, Foulard, featuring stunning close-ups of silk scarves in all their geometric patterned, vibrantly coloured glory. Delve further still for the exhibition's pièce de résistance, FlowerGrow: 3000 photographs taken over 21 days of a bunch of of tulips, amarylis and lilies, strung together to create a really rather magical film. Set to Chopin's Etude in E Major, it's colourful, emotive and very, very beautiful.
The John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition @ Shanghai Oil Painting & Sculpture Institute
A switch up of mediums now courtesy of the China edition of the John Moores Painting Prize exhibition, currently on show at the SPSI Art Museum in Gubei. It's one of the UK's best known art awards, exported to the Middle Kingdom back in 2010 and organized to coincide with Biennales in both Shanghai and sister city, Liverpool. What's on show are works by this year's 64 winners, picked from a pool of 2,200 entries for their contribution to the Chinese art scene. Bar a few sneaky pen and ink sketches, the exhibition is comprised almost exclusively paintings, and showcases a truly mind-boggling variety of styles, themes and techniques. Visitors can't fail to marvel at the painstaking Chuck Close-esque photo-realism of Hu Wenlong's Aphasia, whilst elsewhere Shen Hua's Contraposition Meat challenges conventions of shape, dimension and presentation to intriguing effect... Two floors of fine art fabulousness and not to be missed.
AIVA Summer Show 2012 @ Academy of International Visual Arts
Finally and for something completely different, get thee to the 2012 Summer Show at the Academy of International Visual Arts on Shaanxi Lu. They work to bridge the gap between the British and Chinese arts education systems, with graduates of their various programmes destined for some of the UK's finest art schools, fame, glory and all that jazz. Anyways, the Summer Show features a whole bunch of young talents working across a full range of media, from Chen Siyu's surreal City!City? animation, through to intriguing pieces of jewelery from the likes of Zhang Xin who transforms everyday concrete into something almost fossil-like and really rather beautiful. There's a palpable emphasis on artistic experimentation here, resulting in more than a few surprises – Lao Zheng's wonderfully textured, hand-crafted fruit paper, for example. Go take a look, and to whet the appetite, so to speak, check out AIVA's recently launched online graduate portfolio right here.
