ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 36 Lunch on Nanjing Road after the exhilaration of the Shanghai Tower was an exquisite meal. The taste of every dish was unbelievable. The second floor restaurant is through a nondescript corner door next to a food stall window. Among the regional dishes were steamed dumplings, eel soup, prawns, soft crab tofu, and crab shell pies. If I could return to China it might be in search of more…
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 35 Three days after arrival, following an unexpected bus trip to Hangzhou, I was finally able to enter Shanghai. My colleague Wang assigned a new chaperone to me from his student pool. Mr Li’s daughter Jaiyi met me at my hotel where we coordinated our plan for the day: her list, my list, and Wang’s list. First on his list was the Museum of Contemporary Art, located in The…
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — HANGZHOU, no. 34 A short distance from the Liangzhu Museum is the Vanke Dignified Life Cultural Village, a retirement zone of residential, hospital, nursing and rehab services, shops, restaurants, an international youth hostel, and 35% green space. The bus dropped us off near the non-denominational church Mei Li Zhou. It was designed by Tsushima Design Studio of Tokyo and built in 2010, not by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando as had…
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — HANGZHOU, no. 33 Hangzhou is known as “a paradise on earth” for its picturesque wonders. The threadbare hotel we stayed in must once have been elegant. The broad marble stairway had been roped off. Photographs were prohibited inside. Elena and I shared a spartan room on the second floor. I slept well despite the smell of cigarettes and street noise coming through the window we opened to move the air. My…
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — HANGZHOU, no. 32 After lunch in the tea plantation region outside Hangzhou, the bus delivered six of us to the Quan Shanshi Art Center. It is a private museum that displays, collects, and promotes oil paintings from around the world. The center includes instruction, research, and free public access. The special exhibit during my visit was 19th Century French Realist Painting. The museum is named for the Chinese painter Quan Shanshi…
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — ZHEJIANG, no. 31 Except for scant details, my courteous young interpreter had limited knowledge of our location, destination, or itinerary. The adults were speaking among themselves, merrily enjoying a family-style vacation in the country. They barely looked out the bus windows. Twenty-four hours after leaving Beijing for Shanghai, I was somewhere in China without a map, internet connection, or place name. The verdant scenery that whizzed by was spectacular. Later I…
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — ZHEJIANG, no. 30 The China Academy of Art thesis exhibitions are extensive. The school provides rigorous instruction in a full spectrum of degree offering programs on three campuses. The school was founded in 1928 as the first art university and first graduate school in Chinese history. CAA is under the direct management of the Ministry of Culture. Despite the large quantity of work we saw, it was only a small selection…
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — ZHEJIANG, no. 29 China Academy of Art thesis exhibitions, Xiangshan campus map The China Academy of Art is a world-class fine arts institute in Zhejiang Province, one of the most developed and wealthiest provinces in China. The campus is located on the outskirts of the capital city Hangzhou. The school was designed by architects Wang Shu, winner of the Pritzker Prize, and Ly Wenyu, his collaborator and wife. He is dean of…
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — ZHEJIANG, no. 28 My arrival in Shanghai coincided with a previously scheduled trip of Wang’s colleagues and students from the Shanghai University Architecture and Painting departments. They graciously included me in their plans to view the China Academy of Art Thesis Exhibitions in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province, a three hour drive north of Shanghai. We departed with overnight bags in two buses from the university at 7:00 AM. Tinted…
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 27 There are few more evocative city names in the world than Shanghai. When Wang visited me in Beijing, he urged me not to leave China without seeing his city. The first day was a long one beginning at 4:30 a.m. Wang’s colleague Mr Li continued his generosity toward me by personally driving me the hour long ride to the airport. After a two-hour delay due to weather, the…