Ai Weiwei, Stacked (2002), Installation view Pérez Art Museum Miami Photo credit: Daniel Azoulay photography

The doors of Miami’s newly completed Perez Art Museum opened this past December with a landmark exhibition of works by Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei, the first major international retrospective of the artist’s work.  Charting the artist’s signature blend of irreverence, scale, architectural techniques and sculptural conceptualism, the exhibition is a remarkable introduction to Ai’s challenging and oftentimes difficult work, drawing on political aggression and irony to open dialogues on contemporary politics around the world.

An Ai Weiwei Zodiac Head outside the PAMM, via Art Observed

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Responding to a number of articles and analyses of the Chinese contemporary art market, Forbes has published a list of myths about the nation’s ever-burgeoning sales of contemporary art.  Noting a number of overly negative, pessimistic claims over forgeries, lack of collectors and a dearth of interest in international artists, the list sets straight a number of commonly held beliefs about contemporary art in China today. (more…)

Chinese-Indonesian collector Budi Tek is preparing to open his newly established Yuz Museum in Shanghai, showcasing a broad selection of contemporary Asian works from his collection.  “I don’t have any say, it is done by the curator, who will select from the whole of the collection,” Tek says. “We are very careful to collect and exhibit the best works considered historical to Chinese contemporary art.”  Tek says. (more…)

A New York Times article analyzes the work of artist Pei-Shen Qian, the painter behind the multi-million dollar counterfeiting ring that included the Knoedler Gallery.  Mr. Pei-Shen is well-regarded as a painter in China, but moved to New York in the early 1980’s.  Analyzing the artist’s early work in comparison with his more recent fakes, the article goes on to examine the interplay of supply and demand in the contemporary market as a potential cause of the artist’s shift to fraudulent works. (more…)

Collector Budi Tek’s Yuz Museum in Shanghai is looking to be the first museum of Contemporary Western Art in China, showcasing the flexibility and freedom that privately-owned museums hold as an advantage over government-run institutions.  The trend looks to continue, with 400 new private museums already opened in the country this year. (more…)

Sotheby’s first auction in mainland China closed today with an impressive final sales tally of over $37 million.  The final results included a record-setting $14,725,457 final price for Zao Wou-Ki’s 1958 canvas, Abstraction.   (more…)

Artist Ai Weiwei has announced plans for a show of work at the former prison island Alcatraz in the San Francisco bay.  Weiwei is currently working on obtaining approval from the National Park Service, and if approved, would look to open the show in February of next year.  Little other information has been released. (more…)

The New York Times reports on the state of the auction market in mainland China, where rampant forgeries and a rapidly expanding marketplace have made the bidding experience a fraught procedure.  With a market that has grown to annual revenues of $8.9 billion over the past years, regulators are struggling to keep up.  “The market is in a very dubious stage,” said Alexander Zacke, an expert in Asian art who and head of online house Auctionata. “No one will take results in mainland China very seriously.” (more…)

An auction at Sotheby’s Hong Kong location has set a new record for the highest selling Asian contemporary artwork, after painter Zeng Fanzhi’s The Last Supper achieved a $23.3 million final price, more than doubling its estimate.  It sold as part of an evening contemporary art auction that achieved an impressive total of $145 million in sales. (more…)

As auction houses clamor to enter the Chinese art market, a number of independent auction houses have already sprung up in Hong Kong.  Focusing on narrow, more focused thematic sales, companies like Spink Phila China, China Guardian and Bonhams have sought to capture a larger size of the already thriving market for art and antiques.  “Once I was in London visiting Sotheby’s, and I was told they are jealous of China Guardian since some of their international markets are narrowing while our market is expanding,” said Kou Qin, director and vice president of China Guardian. “China’s economy is booming while other countries have been depressed over many years.” (more…)

The 2014 edition of the Armory Show has announced its commissioned artist for the fair, welcoming Chinese “chameleon of concept” Xu Zhen to exhibit work throughout the fair’s grounds.  The announcement comes as part of the fair’s Focus: China section.  “I am very honored to be named the The Armory Show 2014 Commissioned Artist. The fair offers an strong platform for exchange, and for dialogue around art, the market and its many interrelated institutions and ideas,” the artist says. (more…)

Artist Ai Weiwei, whose scale model recreations of his 2011 incarceration at this year’s Venice Biennale won him critical accolades, has spoken on his ordeal in a recent interview with Salon.  Recounting his experiences with his interrogators, Weiwei recounts conversations in which he began to teach his captors about conceptual art, Dadaism and protest.   “I explained art to them and then many times they said to me, ‘Weiwei, why whenever we talk about art and concepts do you get so excited that you keep talking? And why when we talk about facts, you say, ‘I don’t know’?’ But I say, ‘You know, I like to talk about art, and it makes me joyful and when I get to talk about art and explain I get very high spirits.’”  He says.

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A pre-war bank building in Shanghai has become the home of Bank, an arts exhibition space owned by cultural promoters Mabsociety.  “In the past, we were curating for other institutions and doing some pop-up exhibitions,” founder Mathieu Borysevicz says. “We think of ourselves as ‘post-gallery’.” (more…)

As Christie’s concludes its first auction in mainland China, The Economist has released an article forecasting a rocky road ahead for foreign auction houses entering China’s already competitive market.  With 70 auction houses already operating inside the country, high taxes and rampant concerns over counterfeiting and rigged auctions, the way will not be easy for major international companies looking to cash in on China’s growing market. (more…)

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has released a series of specially designed skateboard decks for The Sk8room.  Featuring shots of some of the artist’s work (including his iconic sunflower seeds work), overlaid with text from the artist. The set of three decks follows in the wake of other Sk8room Collaborations with Damien Hirst and Banksy.   (more…)

Christie’s completed its first auction mainland China yesterday, selling a variety of artworks, jewelry and collectibles for a total sale of $25 million.  One highlight was a painting by Pablo Picasso, which achieved a final price of over $1.5 million.  “I’m very happy with the results, with the right place, with the right people, with the right moment,” said Christie’s executive Steven Murphy.  (more…)

The Financial Times has published an interview with Zeng Fanzhi, the Chinese painter who currently sits as one of the most expensive contemporary Asian artists.  Documenting his unique style, the interview goes on to detail Fanzhi’s early struggles as an artist in China, and his early life in Wuhan, a city known for its prominent role in The Cultural Revolution.  “At the time everyone wore the same clothes but my mother liked beautiful things and she sometimes wore a bit of colour – some pink flowers on her clothes,” Zeng says. “For that she was persecuted for her ‘petit bourgeois sentimentalism’ – that experience affected my whole family deeply.” (more…)

New arrests are expected in the ongoing investigation into the Knoedler Gallery, the New York Times reports.  The news comes after the indictment of dealer Glafira Rosales, in which the prosecuting attorney, Jason P. Hernandez, stated that he was contemplating further arrests.  The news comes after the announcement that Mr. Pei-Shen Qian, the artist who created these works, has left the country for China.  Both the prosecutor and defense attorney in the trial have also forecasted that the case will be resolved soon.  (more…)

The accusations and investigations surrounding the Knoedler Gallery, and the arrest of dealer Glafira Rosales have taken a new turn, with the identification of the forger of at least 63 works attributed to Modernist masters like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.  Artist Pei-Shen Qian, is a Chinese painter living in Queens, who fled his country in the wake of the cultural revolution, and who has eked out a living selling forged works to Rosales for over 15 years.  His payment for these works rarely exceeded several thousand dollars, even though some of the works sold for millions.  “I didn’t know he had this kind of a good technique,” said Qian’s friend and fellow artist Zhang Hongtu. “He had some talent, but I don’t believe he can paint in the same style as a Jackson Pollock; it’s not easy to copy this kind of style.” (more…)

Both Christie’s and Sotheby’s are planning exhibitions of smaller works by Andy Warhol in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong, respectively.  The exhibitions, which are set to open next month, will include a number of the artist’s lower-priced works, intended to encourage private sales.  “In our first online Warhol sale in February, 8 percent of bidders were Chinese, a higher percentage than we have previously seen,” says Amelia Manderscheid, associate specialist on e-commerce for Christie’s. (more…)

The Jibaozhai museum in the northern Chinese region of Hebei has been shut down after authorities determined that nearly all of the works in its collection were fake.  Counterfeiting has been a major issue for China in the past, and government agencies are working to crack down on these violations.  “Jibaozhai has no qualification to be a museum as its collections are fake and it hasn’t reported to my department for approval,” says an official from the Hebei cultural heritage bureau. (more…)

The winning design has been announced for the M+ Museum in Hong Kong, an inverted “T” by Pritzker Prize winners Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.  Featuring 183,000 square feet of exhibition space, the design will be more than twice the size of the Tate Modern, and will stand as the centerpiece of the expanding cultural district in the West Kowloon area of the city.

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Controversially held for centuries outside of China, two bronze zodiac statues looted from Beijing’s summer palace were returned by François-Henri Pinault on Friday.  The Christie’s owner first promised to return the heads in April, during a visit to the country by president Hollande and a number of ranking French businessmen.  “This donation is a token of our family’s appreciation for China as well as our passion for the preservation of art and cultural heritage,” Mr. Pinault said in a statement. (more…)

The Divine Comedy, Ai Weiwei’s heavy metal album has been released this week, and is also available for streaming at his website.  Turning to music to continue his active dissent against Chinese political oppression, the album includes tracks documenting his abuse at the hands of the police and political confrontation, inspired by his 2011 detention at the hands of the government. (more…)