For all of its gloom and uncertainty, the Year of the Ox provided plenty to cheer in the Chinese art world.  3030 Press asks a selection of insiders for their highlights of the past 12 months and what’s on offer in the Year of the Tiger.

Lin Zhipeng (aka 223) (Photographer)

Year of the Ox: I enjoyed the exhibition Jelly Generation, organised by the advertising agency W+K at the Goldsmith Building in Portland, USA. The exhibition was one of the events organised to coincide with China Design Now, at Portland Art Museum.

Year of the Tiger: I’m looking forward to the Shanghai Biennial.

Sarah Callaghan (Chief Editor & Publisher, Asian Art Newspaper, UK)

Year of the Ox: Treasures from Shanghai: Ancient Chinese Bronzes & Jades at the British Museum was an excellent way to start 2009. In the US, Noble Tombs at Mawangdui: Art and Life in the Changsha Kingdom, third century BCE to first century, which opened at the US-China Institute in New York, was the first time these objects had been seen in the country – and all against the backdrop of the ongoing row about US Government restrictions on Chinese art. I also really loved Liu Bolin’s Camouflage series of photographs at Galerie Bertin Toublanc in Paris.

Year of the Tiger: The upcoming Shanghai exhibition at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco is the cornerstone of Shanghai Celebration, a year-long festival acknowledging the region’s long-standing relationship with Shanghai. Also, the opening in May of the World Expo in Shanghai.

Vinci Chang (Vice President, Head of Sales, Chinese 20th Century Art & Asian Contemporary Art, Christie’s, Hong Kong)

Year of the Ox: Hanging out in the Museum, by Cai Guo-qiang at Taipei Fine Arts Museum was very impressive.

Year of the Tiger: Christie's Chinese 20th Century Art & Asian Contemporary Art Spring and Autumn Auctions, which will be held at the end of May and end of November.

Chen Man (Photographer & co-founder, Studio6, Beijing)

Year of the Ox: The most memorable exhibition for me was Cartier’s Treasures at the Forbidden City, in Beijing.

Year of the Tiger: I’m looking forward to visiting the Shanghai Expo.

Colin Chinnery (Director, ShContemporary, Shanghai)

Year of the Ox: The Ai Weiwei mid-career retrospective According to What? At Mori Art Museum looked strong, independent and coherent. It was important to see Ai’s work stand up for itself without the rest of his reputation getting in the way.

Year of the Tiger: ShContemporary is always worth visiting because of the sheer amount of art projects generated all over Shanghai. This year, the Shanghai World Expo will take energy levels to a higher plane. The bubble is now behind us and ShContemporary can continue its role of bringing the Chinese, Asian and western art scenes together.

Gao Shiming (Director, Centre for Visual Culture Research, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou)

Year of the Ox: Thing’s Right(s) 09 The More, by Wu Shanzhuan – C Red Humour International and Thor’s Daughter’s Pulverization Service by Inga Svala Thorsdottir. Wu Shanzhuan and Thorsdottir’s works expose the vitality of concept and the strength of thought. Their work is a series of artistic and social concepts that bring humour, wisdom, spontaneity and subtle insight to day-to-day politics; sensitivity to invisible power systems, and express the basic insistence of democracy. They are not the creators of visual spectacle but the discoverers and subversives of the proposition of truth and the forgers of ideology. Wu and Thorsdottir’s reflections on artists, artworks and the working environment are the most serious and profound of our time. They are like the positive and negative poles of a generator – constantly sparking ideas and challenging genesis theology and politics.

Year of the Tiger: I will be looking forward to the 8^th Shanghai Biennial. It will be the most important event in the Chinese contemporary art world, not only because of the Expo but also because of the Biennial’s ambitions to change itself.  

Andy Hei Guo Ping (Director, Hong Kong International Art & Antiques Fair)

Year of the Ox: TEFAF Masstricht 2009 was the most remarkable event for me – well designed, well marketed and with elegantly displayed art pieces from East and West, from ancient to contemporary.

Year of the Tiger: Fine Art Asia 2010 (Hong Kong International Art & Antiques Fair) in fall 2010 in the most active art market in Asia.

Claire Hsu (Co-founder & Executive Director, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong)

Year of the Ox: Ai Weiwei, According to What? at Mori Art Museum; Freedom by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu at Tang Contemporary; 2009-05-02 by Gu Dexin at Galleria Continua; The Shop at Vitamin Creative Space, and Thing's Right(s) 09 The More, by Wu Shanzhuan at Shanghai Gallery of Art.

Year of the Tiger: Next year will be the Archive’s 10th anniversary and celebrations will include the launch of our four-year project: Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990, a symposium on performance art, and big exhibition on the Archive in 2011.

Andrew James (Director, Andrew James Art, Shanghai)

Year of the Ox: I loved the Antony Gormley exhibition at Galleria Continua. This has to be my number one experience from 2009. The Domus Collection at White Space/Alexander Ochs in Beijing was also well put together. ArtHK was a big spectacle and ShContemporary tops my "better-than-expected" list.

Year of the Tiger: In the coming year I’m very excited at the prospect of exhibiting Lady Aiko in China for the first time. The exhibition will take place at the same time as the Shanghai Biennale, in May.

Sally Lai (CEO, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, UK)

Year of the Ox: Gordon Cheung's solo exhibition at the New Art Gallery Walsall, UK, was really stunning. It’s amazing to see how his work has developed since we first worked with him in 2004.

Year of the Tiger: Next autumn we are doing a solo exhibition with Chen Chieh-jen. It will be his first solo show in the UK.

Warren Leung Chi-wo (Artist)

Year of the Ox: Tozer Pak Sheung-chuen’s Making (Perfect) World at the Venice Biennale; Tsang Kin-wah's two large text installations at the Lyon Biennale and Lee Kit at Platform Seoul 2009, one of very few Chinese artist selected by the curator Sun Jung Kim.

Year of the Tiger: This year I’m looking forward to Ai Weiwei's collaboration with Vito Acconci at Para/Site in Hong Kong, which is a must-see.

Part 2