Huang Yong Ping at Barbara Gladstone Gallery

What Huang Yong Ping’s ‘Bank of Sand, Sand of Bank’ lacks in subtlety it makes up for in presence, filling Barbara Gladstone Gallery’s 21st Street Chelsea location with 20 tons of sand and concrete molded to resemble the former HSBC Bank in Shanghai.  Once a symbol of opulence, here an omen of potential economic collapse, the hulking neoclassical building was used as a government building after the Chinese revolution and has since been adopted as home by the Pudong Development Bank.  (On view through June 9th).

Huang Yong Ping, installation view of ‘Bank of Sand, Sand of Bank’ at Gladstone Gallery, May 2018.

Zhang Enli at Hauser & Wirth

Though they conjure Monet’s quiet gardens at Giverny, Zhang Enli’s new abstract canvases were inspired by Shanghai’s greenery.  Known for representational paintings of everyday objects that twist and turn – cord, branches, wire – and immersive painted installations, Zhang’s new work continues to suggest movement.  (On view at Hauser & Wirth through April 7th). 

Zhang Enli, The Monochrome. Night (2), oil on canvas, 98 ¼ x 117 ½ inches, 2017.

Xu Zhen in ‘By Proxy’ at James Cohan Gallery

Shanghai artist-provocateur Xu Zhen shows a piece from his ‘Eternity’ series at James Cohan Gallery that literalizes the idea of ‘East meeting West’ in an absurd combination of classical refinement and enlightenment. (In Chelsea through Jan 17th).

Xu Zhen, Eternity-Aphrodite of Knidos, Tang Dynasty Sitting Buddha, glass fiber-reinforced concrete, marble grains, sandstone grains, mineral pigments, steel, 139 ¾ x 35 13/16 x 35 13/16 inches, 2014.