Art Hong Kong 2010

Starkwhite will present selected works by Jin Jiangbo (Shanghai), Hye Rim Lee (New York) and John Reynolds (Auckland), at ART HK, 14 – 17 May 2010. Other artists in the exhibition include Whitney Bedford (USA), Matt Henry (NZ) and Peter Stichbury (NZ).

Jin Jiangbo

In his recent series of photographs Jiangbo investigates the past twenty years of economic, social and cultural upheaval that has taken place in China since 1989. Against a backdrop of worldwide economic malaise, Jin Jiangbo presents his photographic works as gestures of archaeological and economic investigation undertaken since 2007. Leaving his familiar mode of new media technologies and taking up the historic process of analogue photography, images are shot using the bare technique of a medium format panoramic camera and then digitally manipulated into large format panoramas. Jiangbo’s arresting panoramas offer an immediate and urgent response to the unique socialist economic landscape of China as it negotiates within wider frames of globalisation, integration and recession.

Based in Shanghai and Beijing, Jin Jiangbo is one of China’s foremost recent generation of media artists. He was born in 1972 in Zhejiang province. He is director of Digital Arts at Shanghai University and is completing his PhD at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Recent exhibitions include: Never Equal Distance to the Moon: Power, Politics, and the Environment, Faureschou Copenhagen, Denmark (2009/2010); China in Four Seasons: Jin Jiangbo, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand (2009); Booming, Wall Art Museum, Beijing and Shanghai Gallery of Art, China (2008); 3rd Nanjing Triennial, China (2008); Remote/Control, MOCA – Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China (2007); Shanghai Surprise, Lothringer 13 – Stadische Kunsthalle Munchen, Munich, Germany (2005); and Venice Biennale, Italy (2003).

Hye Rim Lee

Korean artist Hye Rim Lee’s large-format photographs are from ongoing TOKI cyborg project which images TOKI as a warrior-cum-vixen drawing on the Japanese tradition of Manga, Korean Animax and western ideals of sexuality and beauty.

Over the past five years Hye Rim Lee has established a substantial exhibition record, featuring in exhibitions at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, the City Gallery (Wellington), the Gus Fisher Gallery (Auckland) and at Starkwhite. She has also shown her work offshore in exhibitions including: BOOM BOOM super heroine super beauty, 24HR Art – NT Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin, Australia (2007); OFF LOOP ’06 Festival, New Zealand Scapes, Barcelona, curated by Mercedes Vicente; OFF LOOP ’06 Festival, Busan Biennale 2006, Casa Asia, Barcelona, curated by Manu Park; The Original Neo Aesthetics of Animamix, MoCA Shanghai, China, curated by Victoria Lu (2006); EXPOSED: black box & crystal ball, cross-cultural contemporary media art project in public sites, London, curated by Ji Yoon Lee (2006); Animamix, The 2nd China International Cartoon and Animation Festival, Hangzhou, China (2006); and Open Studio Exhibition, SSamzie Space, Seoul, Korea (2006). She is currently artist in residence at the International Studio and Curatorial Programme (ISCP) in New York.

John Reynolds

Starkwhite will present an extended version of The Art of War, a work developed by the artist during a residency in Beijing and  fiorst exhibited at Art Beijing. The work is made up of approximately 1,000 small readymade canvas blocks, with text in English and Chinese, attached to flat wooden poles, which will lean against the booth wall. The text is drawn from a handbook of common phrases for tourists in China and The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

John Reynolds lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand. Over the past three decades he has established a reputation as a painter who employs aspects of drawing (sketches, plans, charts, doodles) and different types of representation (expressive marks, symbols, patterns, writing) for poetic effect. Not content to be pigeonholed as a painter, he also incorporates sculpture, installation and site-specific outdoor works into his practice. Reynolds is also the recipient of a Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, which he used with collaborator Arch MacDonnell to produce CERTAIN WORDS DRAWN, a book that celebrates the range of his work with writing by 12 contributors.

Solo shows and representation in recent events and group exhibitions include: Dorothy Napangardi / John Reynolds, curated by Robert Leonard, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2009); Walters Prize Exhibition, Auckland Art Gallery (2008); John Reynolds: Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, a collaboration between the artist and actor/director Geraldine Brophy, Christchurch Art Gallery (2008); Speaking Truth to Power, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland University (2007); Zones of Conflict, 15th Biennale of Sydney (his work Cloud was commissioned for the entrance hall of the Art Gallery of New South Wales), curated by Charles Merewether (2006); 54321: Auckland Artists Projects, curated by Ngahiraka Mason, Auckland Art Gallery (2006); Nine Lives: The Chartwell Collection, curated by Robert Leonard, Auckland Art Gallery (2003); HEVN: NOT TO SCALE, curated by Sophie McIntyre, Adam Gallery Victoria University, Wellington (2002): and From K Road to Kingdom Come, curated by Gregory Burke and Robert Leonard, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth (2001).

Located in New Zealand on Auckland’s Karangahape Road, Starkwhite presents a programme of artists’ projects, solo shows, independently curated exhibitions and occasional forays into new music and other interdisciplinary practices. Starkwhite also represents artists from New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific rim.

For further information on the project, or images, please contact the gallery.