MIAMI.- Beyond Icons: Contemporary Chinese Art in Miami, an exhibition featuring the work of eight artists will be presented in the Miami Design District, from December 6 - 9, as part of the Art Loves Design exhibitions, during Art Basel Miami Beach. An opening reception will be held December 6, from 7 p.m. – midnight, at the exhibition space, located at the Newton Building, 3901 NE 2nd Avenue, 2nd Floor. Exhibition hours are Friday, December 7th, 9 a.m. – 11 p.m., Saturday, December 8th, 11 a.m. – 11 p.m., with evening hours 7 – 11 p.m. in conjunction with Art Loves Design, and December 9th, Sunday 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Beyond Icons: Contemporary Chinese Art in Miami is curated by Ms. Weng Ling, a leading inter-disciplinary art curator, director of Legation Quarter, Beijing, and founding director of the Shanghai Gallery of Art at Three on the Bund, Shanghai. The focus of the exhibition is to demonstrate the unique state of Chinese contemporary art, which in the last decade has made a powerful impact on the international scene, and to inquire into its potential to evolve and to “perpetuate” into the future.

Beyond Icons: Contemporary Chinese Art in Miami will present the best artists leading and affecting the development of Chinese contemporary art today. The eight artists in the exhibition are Gu Dexin, Liu Jianhua, Liu Wei, Wang Jianwei, Wang Qingsong, Xu Jiang, Zeng Hao, and Zhou Chunya. Their works includes painting, sculpture, installation, video and photography, but are not necessarily the subject of the current contemporary art market frenzy.

The artworks in the exhibition reflect the conceptual focus and diversity of contemporary Chinese artists. Liu Wei’s paintings are a continuous exploration of the inner heart, showing how a contemporary artist can take responsibility for the language of his individual memories. Zhou Chunya’s “Green Dog” has its origins in the thorough research of both Chinese and Western art and psychology. Xu Jiang’s work draws upon an early devotion to German philosophy and art to gain a new perception about the Chinese-ness of traditional painting. Zeng Hao’s paintings of never-ending little people are a modern microcosm of the state of Chinese literati and materialism. Gu Dexin’s works began with the early conceptualist collective, the “New Measurement Group,” with projects ranging from hand-molding meat to apple installations, always hauntingly questioning humanity.

Liu Jianhua’s shift from Pop ceramic sculptures to conceptual creations was a result of a period spent introspectively observing the changes in China’s societal values. Wang Jianwei’s video and installation works consistently addresses the issue of grasping the intersection of time’s dimensions. Wang Qingsong’s photographic works deal with meticulously staged images from the past to the present in contrast with each other, in order to observe, reflect upon, and satirize our times.

Ms. Weng has used the concept of “Beyond Icons” as the organizing principle of the show. She has written that it is the continuing focused exploration and expression of conceptual subjectivity by certain Chinese artists that create the movement that perpetuates the past into the future of Chinese contemporary art. Emphasizing the present need to view and embrace artworks from this standpoint, Ms. Ling notes that a fixation with the iconic Chinese artists that are currently the darlings of the market can distort our understanding of both history and the current contemporary Chinese art scene. She has chosen artists, not necessarily “in the limelight” to give a truer picture of the state of Chinese art now and its prospects to come. This exhibition reflects the steadily rising trend in the status of Chinese art, both critically and in the international market.

Ms. Weng is a leading curator of contemporary Chinese art and a key figure in promoting it in China. She was the director of the Art Gallery of Central Academy of Fine Art (1996-2000), one of the foremost galleries promoting contemporary Chinese art in China. In 2002, she founded the Shanghai Gallery of Art at Three on the Bund, and co-hosted the 2002 Shanghai Biennale - Urban Creation with the Shanghai Art Museum. Currently Ms. Ling and her team are preparing a new art center in Beijing at the Legation Quarter on Tiananmen Square, that is dedicated to presenting and promoting contemporary art, design, architecture, and performing art.