Bloomberg Brilliant Ideas

Liu Wei works in multiple genres, including painting, sculpture, installation and photography to convey sociopolitical stories such as the development of cities, transformation of landscapes, and the ironies of the 21st century contemporary society. Geometric forms and architectural elements used in his works function as references to the surrounding urban environment. As demonstrated in <Power>(2011) or <Merely a Mistake>(2009-2012), Liu gathers discarded construction materials and urban trashes like wooden beams, door frames or metal bolts from around Beijing, and then transforms them into art materials. That is to say, the artist re-contextualizes abandoned materials into complex installations or sculptures. By doing so, he designates new identities as artworks to these previously insignificant “ready-mades.”
Liu Wei describes himself as “a pure artist,” because he develops each work independently without caring much about how his work will be received by others and reflecting philosophical elements or his personal opinions. Liu Wei graduated from National Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, China, and held a number of solo and group exhibitions around the world, including Seoul, Shanghai, Paris, San Francisco, and Doha. He has also been introducing his art world to a greater audience through participations in the ‘Sharjah Biennale’, ‘Busan Biennale’ and the ‘51st Venice Biennale.’

Born in 1949, FX Harsono is a contemporary artist who reflects in his work, his motherland Indonesia’s society and its current issues. Since his student days, he has maintained a critical view of Indonesian politics, society and culture. He works in a wide range of genres, from painting and calligraphy to performance and installation art, while updating his artistic language to the current society and new cultural context. In the 1970s when Indonesia was under the rule of an iron fist, Harsono did not hesitate to speak up against the government despite the dangers of doing so. For example, he was one of the core members of the “New Art Movement,” through which he cried, “Fine Art of Emancipation, Emancipation of Fine Art.” His active work had a great impact on the changes in the Indonesian contemporary art scene. In particular, Harsono did not turn away from the oppression and massacre committed against the minorities but addressed them in his artworks instead. He has been pointing out social irrationalities apparent in the context of history and politics and highlighting the infringement of human rights.
The 2000s has been a time of drastic transformation for Harsono because he began to shift his artistic focus from nation, society and politics to the discovery of the self. Exploration of the “self” is the new core of FX Harsono’s artistic realm.

Sonia Boyce is a British Afro-Caribbean artist who currently lives and works in London. Influenced by her experiences of living in the United Kingdom as a black woman, Boyce has been addressing the issues of race and gender through various artistic media and has also been trying to incorporate them into our daily lives. Earlier in her career, she worked with themes that reflect her own identity—black race and women—and produced large-scale pastel drawings or photo collages. Boyce’s work eventually shifted to merge different kinds of genres, including photography, collage, film, drawing, installation and sound. To Boyce, art is a means of social practice, and she believes that critical debates on this perspective can take place. This is why she emphasizes in her works the importance of participation and collaboration between people living in different circumstances, like creators (artists or performers) and audience, for example.
In February 2017, Sonia Boyce presented <Wallpaper / Performance> at Eastside Projects in Birmingham with skateboarders and ukulele players. An invited audience, participants, and skateboarders freely improvised performances for this project. Wallpapers made by Boyce were applied to the walls of the performance set. The performances at Eastside Project were recorded on video so the artist can produce additional wallpapers, skateboards and video clips using them, which are to follow as a series.

From political cartoons to sculptures and performance, Damián Ortega’s art world is diverse and extensive. Born in Mexico, Ortega studies political, economic and cultural meanings implied in mundane objects, and applies the results of his investigation to his work. He is “talented” in mischievously transforming daily objects such as pickaxes, bricks or garbage cans and making them dysfunctional. For example, one of his representative works, <Cosmic Thing> (2002) is an installation of an automobile suspended in mid-air, following processes of disassembly and reassembly. This hanging sculpture appears as though the artist has captured the very moment of a car explosion, and the work reminds the viewers that an automobile is like a universe in that a single car is built with countless different parts. Moreover, the installation encourages people to think about the forces that fundamentally compose the world we live in. In Ortega’s world, “meaning” is not determined by a single entity but rather by the relationship among multiple matters. He observes the world with a uniquely critical point of view, yet presents lyrical and harmonious works. Ortega currently lives and works in Mexico City and Berlin.

Nicholas Hlobo is a South African artist living and working in Johannesburg. Upon graduation from Technikon Witwatersrand in 2002 with a degree in fine art, Hlobo has been working across various genres including painting, sculpture, installation and performance.
The artist uses materials such as ribbon, rubber, leather and wood because he believes that raw materials are charged with symbolic meanings and powers. Hlobo works by stitching and weaving together these materials. He emphasizes that all choices and procedures involved in art making are meaningful, from material selection to artistic technique. This philosophy is exemplified in Hlobo’s use of personification that distinguishes between materials and artistic techniques, with the former being categorized as masculine and the latter feminine.
In 2011, Nicholas Hlobo participated in the 54th Venice Biennale, where he exhibited All the Lightning Birds Are After Me, an installation of a giant flying rubber dragon made by stitching tire inner tubes with red ribbons.

SUIKO is a celebrated street artist based in Hiroshima, with background in visual design. His fashionable graffiti focuses on letters, made vibrant with expressive and bubbly figures, dynamic lines, and brilliant colors. He travels throughout Japan, Europe and other parts of Asia to collaborate with other artists whose artistic career, style, and cultural backgrounds are different from those of his. In the process, SUIKO makes note of artistic elements that he is particularly drawn to from these artists, such as their usages of colors, lines, or forms, and adopts them in his own way in his practice. SUIKO’s works are thus enriched through such artistic collaborations. The artist’s unique graffiti style developed out of his combination of calligraphy and Ukiyo-e, a genre of Japanese art using woodblock prints. According to the artist, he is stimulated by the scenery, texture of the wall, sounds and other factors from the environment when he stands before a wall, but the white canvas is never changing and thus finds it more and more difficult to work with. SUIKO currently lives and works in Japan, and is considered one of the most outstanding graffiti artists in his country.

Phyllida Barlow is the representing artist of Great Britain at the 57th Venice Biennale. Currently on view at the British Pavilion is her work Folly, which playfully challenges the audience to explore their own understandings of sculpture. Barlow’s sculptures, which inhabit the entire pavilion and extend beyond the exhibition space, are observed from multiple perspectives by the audience. Evidently, the artist primarily values the relationship between the exhibition space and her works. In the past, Barlow installed her sculptures around various locations in London, including King’s Cross Station and public parks, and then carefully examined how people, the environment and her works respond to one another.
Over the course of 40 years of her artistic career, Barlow used relatively inexpensive materials such as cardboard, wood, fiber, plaster, cement or synthetic resin to create her colossal sculptures. Her bold, colorful and 3D collage-like sculptures appear as if they may collapse any moment, and this sense of instability prompts uneasiness among the audience. Such is what makes Phyllida Barlow’s works often comparable to monuments that have been settled in one place for years.

A pioneer of video arts and multimedia installations, Pipilotti Rist is a renowned contemporary artist who works internationally as the whole globe is the source of her of artistic inspiration. Her works envelop the viewers in kaleidoscopic projections that fuse the natural world with technology. The artist’s works also interweave the physical and spiritual realms, thus creating what have been called near-psychedelic experiences. With rich expressions of sensual experiences, Rist discloses the secret desires of people while also playfully twisting the familiar senses and bringing out uncomfortable feelings from ordinarily accepted things in life. She breaks down the barriers between public and private spaces, and presents fantastic and unrealistic scenes as well. Using video, music, light effects and objects, the artist practices ‘the idea’ that we can escape from the already explored geographical world, images or films and delve into new and unexplored spaces. Rist believes that art should contribute to evolution, encourage the mind, open up new possibilities, and destroy clichés and prejudices of the society. Pipilotti Rist thus deserves the title “pioneer and leader of multimedia art.”

Ai Weiwei is inarguably one of the most significant and influential conceptual artists in the world today. He works with various media and has been even expanding his artistic territory to documentary film and architecture. Ai was born in China in 1957, when the communist regime was at its peak in the country. Upon his relocation to New York in 1981, the artist declared himself as heir to Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol, who had led contemporary art movements at the frontline. To practice his Chinese heritage, Ai employs historical materials in his works, including Han Dynasty vases or wood from demolished temples. He not only bears witness to the Communist China of the past but also to China and the world in the contemporary age, and thereby testifies to their political and ideological struggles. The boldness evident in his works is a metaphor for audacity required in fighting against injustice. While Ai’s works are bold and powerful, humor and compassion are also key elements always implied in his works. Like any other activist, the artist willingly takes risks to be part of the force that creates social changes, particularly through his artistic practice. Ai Weiwei thus delivers hope and courage to the audience and the public to foster positive changes for a better world.

Known as a Japanese avant-garde artist, Yayoi Kusama is famous for her hallucinating works using loops and dots that refer to infinity. She is one of the most influential postwar period artists of the New York art scene. Kusama repeats themes like psychology, feminism, obsession, sex, destruction, and has firmly established her own artistic world related with her hallucination and obsession issues and her childhood experiences. Kusama is continuing her artistic career internationally and is expending beyond sculpture and installation into performance, literature, fashion, and design.
Born in 1929 in Matsumoto city, Japan, Yayoi Kusama briefly studied art at the Kyoto Municipal College of Arts and Crafts, and moved to the United States in 1957. Until 1977, she was very active in New York, Seattle and other cities, then she came back to Japan and now she continues her career in Tokyo. She had many solo and group exhibitions in art museums and galleries including Victoria Miro in London, Opera Gallery in New York, Whitestone Gallery in Hong Kong, and Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. Moreover, she exhibited <Narcissus Garden> at ‘the 33rd Venice Biennale’ in 1966, and participated in the Japanese Pavilion at ‘the 45th Venice Biennale’ in 1993.

Chiharu Shiota is famous for art works that are delicate, poetic but monumental at the same time. As a child, she had found a burnt piano which didn’t make any sound, and it made her dream of becoming an artist. Now she expresses the themes of remembrance and oblivion, dreaming and sleeping, traces of the past and childhood, and dealing with anxieties by crossing over many genres such as installation, paintings, drawings, and performance. The room-filling art works with daily-life objet and even the artist herself connected with the black or red threads remind the viewers of a giant spider web, and the works deeply impress the audience.
Born 1972 in Osaka, Japan, Chiharu Shiota went to Kyoto Seika University, and to Universität der Künste Berlin, Germany, and continues her career in Berlin. She had numerous group and solo exhibitions in many art institutions around the world, such as Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, MoMA, New York, National Museum of Osaka, Japan. Moreover, she participated in the 56th Venice Biennale as the artist for Japan, and the 20th Sydney Biennale.

Thomas Struth is famous for large-size photography which depicts the scene with lush colors and amazing details. His earlier works reflected urbanization and architectural changes capturing the industrial cities and deserted streets in black and white. Recently, he has been reflecting the relationship between the metropolis like New York, Tokyo, Berlin, Chicago and people. One of the most popular works is the ‘Museum’ series which shows museum scenes with many spectators. It gives the viewers the feeling that they are participating in the scene.
Thomas Struth was born in 1954, Germany, and studied photography from Bernd and Hilla Becher. He presented at the 44th Venice Art Biennale in 1999 and Kassel Documenta IX in 1992, and had many group and solo exhibitions across the world including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin and Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. In 2016, he was awarded with the centenary medal of the Royal Photographic Society.

Philippe Parreno could be referred to as a contemporary artist, a film producer and an author. Based on the various references, he crosses over different media such as film, video, sound, sculpture, performance, and information technology. Travelling through reality and fiction he creates exhibitions as organic subjects by exploring and redefining the experiences happening inside the exhibition space, and produces an ever-changing environment. Moreover, Philippe Parreno identifies exhibitions as the creation activity itself rather than just a way of displaying objects.
Born in 1964, Philippe Parreno is currently living and working in Paris. He has had numerous solo exhibitions across the globe including in Moscow, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and London. From 2013 to 2014, his exhibition <Anywhen, Anywhere, Out of the World> was held at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, and he also participated in the ‘56th Venice Biennale’. In 2016, Philippe Parreno was announced as the second artist of the Hyundai Commission. <Hyundai Commission 2016: Philippe Parreno: Anywhen> was on view at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall from October 4th 2016 to April 2nd 2017.

Charles Lim is a multi-genre artist and a film director who encompasses various genres of art including film, sound, text, drawing, photography, and installation. Since 2005, he is continuing the project called “SEA STATE” which explores the biophysical, political, and psychic contours of the Southeast Asian city-state, and the project structure is influenced by the code for measuring sea conditions by the World Meteorological Organization. Recalling Land Art Movement in the 1970s, his work suggests a new perspective on the everyday surroundings by presenting uncharted scenery, disappearing islands, and imaginary borderlines of the future landmass of Singapore.
Born in 1973, in Singapore, Charles Lim lives and works based in his motherland. He has presented the project, “SEA STATE” at Manifesta 7, Institut d’Art Contemporain Villeurbanne, Singapore Art Museum, biennales in Singapore, Shanghai, and Osaka, and the Singapore Pavilion at the ‘56th Venice Biennale’.