Lehmann Maupin Beijing
October 23, 2021–January 23, 2022
Tuesday–Sunday, 10 AM–6 PM
Blanc Art Space
Building D7, Yard3, East Jinhang Road
Shunyi District, Beijing (Tianzhu Comprehensive Bonded Zone)
Lehmann Maupin announces its new seasonal space in Shunyi District, Beijing, opening October 23 and running through January 2022. This space, which marks the gallery’s first physical location in Beijing, follows the success of recent pop-ups in Aspen, Palm Beach, and Taipei. Lehmann Maupin Beijing will be located at the Blanc Art Space (Tianzhu Comprehensive Bonded Zone) in the Shunyi District, Beijing, which will function as an arts hub for international and regional galleries.
Lehmann Maupin Beijing will open on October 23 with a solo presentation of works by London-based artist Chantal Joffe, and will mark the artist’s first presentation in China. Joffe, who recently had her first exhibition in South Korea at Lehmann Maupin Seoul, is best known for her ability to bring a combination of insight and integrity, as well as psychological and emotional force, to the genre of figurative art. Whether in paintings a few inches square or 10 feet high, her deceptively casual brushstrokes and ability to combine fluidity with a pragmatic approach to representation seduces and disarms. Joffe’s work will also be on view at the gallery’s booth as part of KIAF Art Seoul (October 13–17).
A subsequent solo presentation opening on November 29 will feature a solo presentation of works by New York-based artist Marilyn Minter, who creates empowering photographs, painting, and videos that offer nuanced representations of women and the treatment of the female body in popular media. Through her subversion of beauty and glamour imagery, Minter exposes the double standards that influence women’s identities and challenges the historic portrayal of women through images. Debuting in Beijing is a selection of large-scale photographs, where Minter partially obscures bathers behind frosty or steamed panes of glass, giving her subjects the power to control how they allow the viewer to consume their image. In recent years, Minter’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA; and the Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY.
Each solo presentation will be accompanied by a viewing room intended to showcase the full extent of the gallery’s program, with rotating works ranging from painting and sculpture to photography and large-scale video by gallery artists McArthur Binion, Lee Bul, Billy Childish, Angel Otero, and Lari Pittman.
About the decision to open a pop-up space in Beijing, David Maupin states, “China, and Beijing specifically, has always been important to the gallery’s history. Rachel and I first visited Beijing in the late-1990s, following an important group exhibition we mounted in New York in 1998 of contemporary artists from China. The experience left a lasting impression on us both, and inspired repeated trips to China ever since. Compared to other cities, Beijing has the longest history as the cornerstone for contemporary art, with the largest community of artist studios which includes our artist Liu Wei, and some of the earliest contemporary galleries, museums and institutions, including the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art and the Beijing Minsheng Art Museum. There’s an important collecting history and legacy in the city, as well as support for the artists in our program.”
The gallery’s Beijing space will be spearheaded by Director Tiffany Xu, who is based in Beijing and oversees the gallery’s activities in China. “Having lived between Beijing and Shanghai for 19 years, I understand the taste of the local arts scene and what collectors gravitate towards,” says Xu. “Given the enthusiastic response to our participation in JINGART this past June, I am confident that there is appetite for this pop-up model in the city. This new space gives us the platform to present artists from our program in depth and to allow collectors the opportunity for discovery in a new geography. I’m especially excited to spotlight Marilyn Minter and Chantal Joffe, two artists that I admire and who are groundbreaking in their own right.”
About Lehmann Maupin
Rachel Lehmann and David Maupin co-founded Lehmann Maupin in 1996 in New York. Since inception, Lehmann Maupin has served as a leading contemporary art gallery with locations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. For over 25 years, Lehmann Maupin has been instrumental in introducing international artists in new geographies and building long-lasting curatorial relationships. Known for championing diverse voices, the gallery’s program proudly features artists whose work challenges notions of identity and shapes international culture. Today, the gallery has locations in New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London, as well as a team in mainland China. In the past year with growing opportunities in new markets, the gallery has opened seasonal spaces in Aspen, Palm Beach, and Taipei.
Read more in the Financial Times.
Image: Lehmann Maupin Beijing, exterior view