Chinatown Arts Space in partnership with Asia House and supported by Shaftesbury PLC launches SUSTAIN – a new project to commission a third landmark piece of public art for London’s Chinatown.

• Sustainability at the heart of artists’ brief
• Contemporary sculpture positioned on the corner of Gerrard Place and Shaftesbury Avenue – above a famous Chinese herbalist’s shop
• A sculptor artist of East Asian descent to be commissioned

The search for the next sculptor artist to produce a striking, thought-provoking and contemporary piece of public art for London’s Chinatown has started this month. Chinatown Arts Space is delighted to be working with Shaftesbury PLC for the third time to improve, ignite and invent a new Chinatown. This ambitious project aims to deliver public art that fully captures the imagination of all those that visit, work or live in and around London’s vibrant Chinatown.

More...

Exhibition of contemporary Chinese woodblock prints by two artists, Ding Jitang (Xi'an, Huxian County) and Yu Chengyou (Harbin, Heilongjiang Province). Both artists depict rural scenes of their own familiar habitat in charmingly simple styles. Ding portrays, with only touches of colour and bold outlines, the daily lives of the villagers in 'idyllic' rustic scenes. Yu uses more colour to evoke the vast scenery of the 'northern wilderness', with few signs of human habitation, but some wild life, particularly deer. This exhibition continues at Arthur Probsthain Bookshop, 41 Great Russell Street, London WC1, until Sat.3 March.

More...

7. Nov - 2012. Feb 2012

Jen Wu's practice is concerned with social and material narratives of transformation. It manifests itself through a multidisciplinary field combining sculpture, events, film and curation. Previous projects have included transforming London's ICA into an all-night exhibition as nightclub. During her residency Jen will be taking in Manchester and its various histories from 18th century local politics to the city's infamous 90's music scene.


More...

Jessica Longmore is a Manchester based artist whose current focus is the idea of the studio as a container; an environment which acts as a 'former' in the production of work. Jessica's practice involves a series of appropriate gestures; instinctive sculptural responses to the psychology of particular spaces.

More...

2012 is set to be an auspicious year for London with highlights like Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 Olympic Games. London Chinatown is looking to do its bit to make 2012 unforgettable and needs your help. To commemorate this momentous year and to usher in the Year of the Dragon, draw a logo for Chinese New Year 2012 and your design may be chosen as the official logo for the Year of the Dragon celebrations in London Chinatown!

The competition is open to children aged 5 to 12. Only one entry will be accepted per child.

More...

From Pokémon to Hello Kitty, a remarkable quality and range of Japanese subcultures has been sweeping the world, most notably in manga, anime, and more recently computer games. Indeed, the Japanese have long lived with this culture, nurturing a passion for the variety of characters around them.

More...

Reviving the Design and Techniques used in the Maki-e Lacquer at Kodai-ji Temple

The Maki-e Lacquer from Kodai-ji Temple in Kyoto has been regarded as one of the most superior parts of Japan's cultural heritage, certainly the best of its kind. Dating back 400 years, the Kodai-ji Maki-e lacquer caught the gaze of many a missionary who visited Japan in the 16th century, for both its intricate design as well as its marvellous technique, and helped lacquerware to become synonymous with Japan. Over the past years, an extensive research project on the Kodai-ji Maki-e lacquer has been conducted by NPO for Preservation of Kodaiji-Makie Heritage, and as result of this, the design and techniques used 400 years ago have been revived on a new screen, in the 21st century.

More...

Kitsch, otaku (“geek”) and kawaii (cuteness, sometimes super-girly hyper-cuteness) – are all stereotypes frequently attributed to contemporary Japanese culture. It is true to say that Japanese society often embraces such images of itself, and some Japanese artists, such as Takashi Murakami and Kaikai Kiki, respond to, or exploit, these trends, making them even more widespread. Yet is this the whole story? Does this kind of work actually represent the most significant and powerful art being made in Japan today?

More...

Tsuyoshi Ozawa is an intriguing Japan-grown contemporary artist. His works challenge the establishment and people’s existing systems, as well as perceptions about their daily lives. Yet Ozawa also approaches these issues with both gentle humour and clever irony, quite often throwing his viewers, with great relish, into a maze of the actual and the virtual: for example in works such as his Museum of Soy Sauce Art, a parodic look at Japanese art history, or his long running Vegetable Weapons project.

More...

Atsuko Tanaka was one of the foremost members of Gutai, a group which focussed on experimental art forms, their manifesto proclaiming a new relationship between the materials and the human spirit. Within this primarily male-orientated group, Tanaka was particularly unconventional and stood out from the other Gutai members, as indeed she did from other international avant-garde artists of her time. This was due not only to her radical and metaphorical expression, but also the relationship between the body of work created especially between 1953 and 1957, and her way of thinking.

More...