Shows to See in Shanghai, November 2024
By Louis Lu
This November, Shanghai kicks off with its annual art week as the global art community gathers for Art021 (November 7–10) and West Bund Art & Design (November 8–10), two major fairs that have brought together international galleries and local institutions to the city for over a decade. To help navigate this year’s art week, our associate editor Louis Lu has compiled a list of the best galleries and exhibitions to visit across the Chinese megacity this month.
Installation view of RINDON JOHNSON’s "Best Synthetic Answer," at Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai. Courtesy Rockbund Art Museum.
Sep
20–Apr 6, 2025
Rindon
Johnson
Best Synthetic Answer
Rockbund Art Museum
Known for his multidisciplinary practice,
American artist Rindon Johnson’s language-based work investigates how the
effects of capitalism, climate, and technology construct our realities. His
most comprehensive institutional presentation in Asia Pacific to date, “Best
Synthetic Answer,” is an extensive project that examines the fluid expanses of
the Pacific Ocean. The exhibition features 18 new works across five floors (some
of which will be rotated throughout the duration of the exhibition), including
a newly commissioned video installation, Best
Synthetic Answer #1: Crossing… (2024), which simulates a real-time,
seven-month journey from Johnson’s birthplace—on the unceded territories of the
Ohlone people in San Francisco—to Shanghai.
DING HONGDAN, 70 Queen’s Road Central, 2024, oil on canvas, 160 × 200 cm. Courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery, London.
Oct
26–Jan 5, 2025
A Cloud in Trousers: Painting Today
West Bund Museum and Pond Society
“A Cloud in Trousers: Painting Today” is the first collaboration between the West Bund Museum and Shanghai’s Pond Society. The exhibition convenes 23 works by artists from different generations and backgrounds that explore the structural possibilities of painting—one of the most traditional and, some might say, conservative art forms—in the current post-medium condition.
BONY RAMIREZ, One Hundred Minus One, 2024, acrylic, soft oil pastel, color pencil, wallpaper, gold leaf marker, Bristol paper on wood panel, 121.9 × 121.9 cm. Courtesy the artist and BANK, Shanghai.
Nov 2–Jan 4, 2025
Bony Ramirez
100 Rabbits Minus 1
BANK
Shanghai
Dominican American artist Bony Ramirez presents his debut solo exhibition in
Asia at BANK Shanghai, showcasing a collection of paintings and ceramic
sculptures. The exhibition title, “100 Rabbits Minus 1,” is a playful
examination of the elusive nature of being perfect: a relentless pursuit of the
number 100—which represents both a sense of wholeness and an unrealistic
ideal—and the haunting feeling that perfection is often, if not always, just
beyond our reach.
SHUANG LI, Shackles, 2024, resin, fabric, vinyl printing, found objects, wires, 110 × 60 × 4 cm. Photo by Alessandro Wang. Courtesy the artist; Prada Rong Zhai; Peres Projects, Berlin; and Antenna Space, Shanghai.
Nov 6–Jan 12, 2025
Shuang Li
Distance of The Moon
Prada
Rong Zhai
“Distance of the Moon” is Berlin- and Geneva-based artist Shuang Li’s first solo institutional show in Asia. Deeply rooted in the contemporary digital landscape, Li’s work comprises performance, interactive websites, sculpture, moving images, and multimedia installations. Drawing on the artist’s personal experience growing up in China during the infamous one-child policy, the exhibition features new works that explore the complicated relationship between mother and child, as well as the dilemma of communication in today’s highly mediated reality.
ALI BANISADR, The Fortune Teller, 2024, oil on linen, 215.9 × 335.3 cm. Courtesy the artist and Perrotin, Shanghai.
Nov 6–Dec 21
Ali Banisadr
The Fortune Teller
Perrotin
Marking Ali Banisadr’s debut in China, the Tehran-born artist presents his solo exhibition at Perrotin Shanghai. The exhibition showcases 11 paintings that weave together intricate abstractions and mysterious visual symbols. At once vibrant and elaborate, subdued and enigmatic, Banisadr’s work blends otherworldly scenes with hybrid creatures, reminiscent of surrealist dreamscapes.
PATRICIA AYRES, 19-1-2-9-14-1, 2023, elastic, paint, ink, dye, anointing oil, sacramental wine, US military parachute hardware, padding, wood, 215.9 × 109.2 × 109.2 cm. Courtesy the artist and TANK Shanghai.
Nov 6–Feb
28, 2025
Patricia Ayres
Unrequited Remnants
TANK Shanghai
Drawing on the concept of “matter out of place” by British anthropologist Mary Douglas, American artist Patricia Ayres presents her solo show, titled “Unrequited Remnants,” at TANK Shanghai. The exhibition showcases various sculptures enmeshed in gunk and residues while adopting anomalous forms, exploring themes of the body, social constructs, and identity.
ISSY WOOD, Self portrait 60, 2024, oil on linen, 20 × 30 × 2 cm. Photo by Damian Griffiths. Courtesy the artist and Carlos/Ishikawa, London.
Nov 6–Jan 19, 2025
Issy Wood
What I Eat In A Day
TANK Shanghai
Fur coats, silk shirts, high heels, pearl earrings, and leather handbags—these everyday objects and symbols of consumerism pervade American artist Issy Wood’s body of work. Her solo exhibition at TANK Shanghai, “What I Eat In A Day,” features a collection of small-scale, but equally ominous and disquieting, paintings that showcase the intimate fragments of the artist’s daily life. Blending photorealistic depictions with an eerie atmosphere, her work explores themes of fetishism, desire, and value through myriad objects and pop culture references, often revealing the psychological undertones of contemporary material experiences.
EMMA MCINTYRE, Calypso, 2024, oil and iron oxide on linen, 210 × 160 × 4 cm. Courtesy the artist and Chateau Shatto, Los Angeles, and David Zwirner Gallery.
Nov 7–Dec 17
ALCHEMISTS
Pond
Society
Inaugurating Pond Society’s new Shanghai
space, the group show “ALCHEMISTS” presents the works of nine contemporary
artists that seek to challenge conventional storytelling and representation.
Referencing Paulo Coelho’s eponymous novel The
Alchemist (1988), the exhibition highlights the transformative power that
bridges narrative and abstraction, the intangible and the visible.
Installation view of YIN XIUZHEN’s Flying Machine, 2008, used clothes, stainless steel, planks, car, tractor, 353 × 1592 × 1220 cm, at the 7th Shanghai Biennale "Translocalmotion," 2008, Shanghai Art Museum. Courtesy the artist.
Nov 9–Feb 16, 2025
Yin Xiuzhen
Piercing the Sky
Power
Station of Art
Curated by art historian Wu Hung, the former power station-turned-institution
presents a solo exhibition of Chinese artist Yin Xiuzhen, titled “Piercing the
Sky.” Known for her site-specific installations and sculptures made of used or
recycled items such as clothing and domestic objects, Yin’s work functions as a
sculptural documentation of personal memories in a rapidly globalizing and
homogenizing world. Over ten large-scale installations are on display,
including the eponymous steel-frame work, covered in cloth, that connects a
Volkswagen Santana, a handheld tractor, and a Boeing 747 aircraft model with
daily life objects.
APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL, Signs and Illusions, 2022, giclee print, 106 × 159 cm. Courtesy the artist and ShanghART, Shanghai.
Nov 9–Jan 5, 2025
All The Images Will Disappear
ShanghART
Gallery
Curated together with Philippe Pirotte, the co-artistic director of the 2024
Busan Biennale, the group exhibition, “All The Images Will Disappear,”
references a quote by the French writer Annie Ernaux. Featuring 11 artists
across various environments and mediums, the show explores the tension between
memory and recollection, reflecting on how meanings shift in an increasingly
fragmented world.
Louis Lu is associate editor at ArtAsiaPacific.
