In September I was in China. It was exciting and very intense. My first group exhibition of this trip began on Saturday, September 16th. It was the opening of "Materialism Constellation", Chengdu Biennale at XLY MoMA:
Sculptures, paintings, installations, performance, music and AI art by over 90 artists can be seen until mid-March 2024. A very diverse exhibition.
Artists from Switzerland were Barbara Streiff with three metal sculptures:
Rudolf Butz with two paintings:
And I, Antonio Wehrli, with two paintings that I had painted on site in April 2023:
In the picture, Ms. Zhang, the wife of the curator Liaoyuan Xu.
All photos from the exhibition can be viewed here: https://y.camera360.com/photolivepc/?orderId=202309151935417062&channel=h5&origin=qrcode . At the beginning there are photos of food, as there was a large buffet on the opening evening. The photos with art follow suit.
In the morning of the following Saturday, September 23rd, was the opening of "为荷来" - Wei He Lai, which I loosely translate to "Come for the Lotus". It was the second solo exhibition by my good friend Liming Fu, which I curated. In 2016 I already had curated his first solo exhibition. This time, AI artworks created and post-processed by the artist on the theme of lotus were shown.
After a quick lunch with distinguished guests, we continued to Chongqing, where I had a small opening in the evening to start my four-day artist residency on the second floor of VA Gallery in Luzumiao, Chongqing.
Among other things, I created three commissioned works for the newest and largest dinner cruise ship in Chongqing, the Shi Guang Hao:
Since the ship hasn't left the pier yet, I photoshopped it into three photos that I took in 2018 and whose scenery hasn't changed noticeably in the last 5 years. I then had the photos printed on canvas and painted over them in my Gravity style.
I also created my three smallest works of art to date: painted food stamps from Chongqing from 1986, each measuring just 2cm x 4cm:
"J1", "J2" and "J4", acrylic on food stamp on MDF, each 2cm x 4cm, 2023
I will paint the fourth stamp "J3" in Switzerland. The "J" stands for Jiefangbei, the landmark of Chongqing shown on the stamp. On the background of the small wooden plate, the entire name would hardly have had space in addition to date and signature.
Unfortunately, the exhibition in Shanghai did not take place this time. But next time it should work out.
Next up in Switzerland is Annette Grunert's solo exhibition at Antonio Wehrli Art Space. The opening is on October 21st from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
On December 2nd there will be the openings of "Kunstschaffen Glarus M-Z" at the Kunsthaus Glarus, in which I am taking part, and of "Natura Poetica", a solo exhibition by Peter Wallimann at Antonio Wehrli Art Space.
Best wishes from Schwanden, Glarus,
Turn your life colorful!
Antonio
