Ravenel Art Hosts Unveiling for Xu Bing's sculpture "The Phonenixes" in Beijing

Xu Bing’s towering sculptural masterpiece ‘The Phoenixes” will be unveiled at a ceremony at the Today Art Museum in Beijing on Saturday March 27 at 4pm. The truly impressive 2 Phoenixes are colossal in size, measuring 15 meters in height, 28 meters in length, 8 meters in width, and weighing in at 12 tons. On Saturday afternoon 6 large cranes will be present to position the sculpture into place for its first public display since its completion.

Created as a reflection on modern Beijing, this first exhibition will be appropriately held in the CBD in the Chaoyang District of Beijing. Constructed from rudimentary waste materials from building sites, its haunting beauty rises from the ashes of this waste, just as a new Beijing rises from the wastelands of building sites strewn throughout the city. The Phoenixes great beauty will be reflected in the glamour and glitter of the new CBD buildings, while its common and ugly base materials will be on full display. Lit up at night from within with many LED lights, the Phoenixes will glow with star-like lights.

The Phoenixes is the very impressive and powerful expression of the world-renowned contemporary Chinese artist Xu Bing. Created on his return to China after a prolonged sojourn in the USA, The Phoenixes is inspired by Xu Bing’s experience of the new Chinese society and the reality of the new Beijing that he found on his return. Xu Bing has devoted all his energies to realizing this work over the last 2 years. An enormous project, that took months of planning, and many trawls through building sites to find all the material, slowly a great work of beauty arose. The Phoenixes examines the profound realities of modern Chinese society and provokes such questions as what is real and unreal. It invites the viewer to behold Modern China, contemplate the backbreaking work of laborers, and to see what lies behind the accumulation of wealth.

The exhibition in the Today Art Museum will feature many illuminating insights into the creation of The Phoenixes masterpiece. Documents outlining the creation process along with photographs of each stage of the creation will be shown. Ravenel Art Group will publish a book on the creation of the work containing articles by Xu Bing and many illustrations. A public seminar will be held with representatives from the worlds of Art, Architecture and Construction who will explore the greatness of The Phoenixes.

The majestic work The Phoenixes was commissioned by the Ravenel Art Group, one of the leading art houses in Asia with headquarters in Taipei and offices in Hong Kong and Beijing under the auspicious of its President and CEO, Ms Clara Kuo. The work has been collected by Mr. Barry Lam, an acclaimed entrepreneur and major collector of Chinese art.

The Opening ceremony will take place at The Art Square and Building, No. 1, Today Art Museum, Pingod Community, No. 32 Baiziwan Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing on Saturday March 27 at 4pm. The exhibition will run from March 28 to April 16. The Xu Bing Phoenix Academic Conference will take place on May 28 2010 in the 2nd floor exhibition hall of building No. 1.

Ravenel Art Group is a leading art auction house based in Taipei, Taiwan with offices in Hong Kong and Beijing. Set up in 1999, we have established Taipei as a major auction center for Modern and Contemporary Asian Art. We hold spring and autumn auctions in Taipei and Hong Kong. We also work closely with the development of major contemporary artists.

Ravenel Art
15F-2, No. 76, Section 2, Tun-hua South Road, Taipei 10683, Taiwan.
David Kearney
david_kearney@ravenelart.com
+886 2 2708 9868 ext 183

This release was published on openPR.