The Today Art Museum in Beijing, is China's first private, non-profit museum. The museum's mission is to support the development of Chinese contemporary art.
No doubt this is the gravitational centre of the Baiziwan Lu district. Pictures of its post industrial facade, designed by artists Wang Jianwei and Wang Hui, are the poster image of Chinese art development in the city. Yue Minjun's enigmatic statues on the front lawn add to its contemporary appeal. The museum spans four floors of exhibition space – a total of 4,000 square meters of contemporary art. Attached is a café and a creative club. The museum also sponsors loads of activities from kids workshops to arts seminars.
A ways southeast of Guomao subway station is Pingod Art District, one of Beijing's hip destinations that somehow stays under the mainstream radar. Home to Modern Sky Records' headquarters and numerous galleries and design studios, Pingod would be worth a visit even if it didn't have its focal point of the Today Art Museum.
The Today Art Museum is Beijing's only private museum which focuses exclusively on contemporary art, pushing culture forwards as China concurrently modernizes.
Immediately humorous and sympathetic, Yue Minjun’s paintings offer a light-hearted approach to philosophical enquiry and contemplation of existence. Drawing connotations to the disparate images of the Laughing Buddha and the inane gap toothed grin of Alfred E. Newman, Yue’s self-portraits have been describe by theorist Li Xianting as “a self-ironic response to the spiritual vacuum and folly of modern-day China.”
Often basing his compositions on well known European masterpieces and iconic Chinese art, Yue subverts the grandiose aura of art history through his adaptation of pop aesthetics. Using both the exaggerated expressiveness of cartooning and the stylistic rendering of graphic illustration, Yue depicts his cloned doppelgangers as contorted and grotesque, all scalded pink skin and maniacal toothy cackles.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2004
Yue Min Jun: Sculptures And Paintings, Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong
2003
Yue Min Jun: Beijing Ironicals, Prüss & Ochs Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Yue Min Jun, Meile Gallery, Switzerland
2002
Soaking In Silly Laughter: One Of Art Singapore 2002, Soobin Art Gallery, Singapore
Yue Min Jun: Handling, One World Art Center, China
2000
Red Ocean: Yue Min Jun, Chinese Contemporary, London, Uk
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2004
Guangju Biennale 2004, Korea
Shanghai Biennale 2004, China
China, The Body Everywhere, Maseille Museum Of Contemporary Art, France
20 Years Of Hanart, Tz Gallery, Hong Kong Art Center
Art On The Beach, Enrico Navarra Gallery, Paris, France
2003
From China With Art, Edwin Gallery & Indonesia National Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia
The Rest Of The World, Neuffer Am Park, Pirmasens, Germany
Neue Kunsthalle Mannheim 2, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany
Cp Open Biennale 2003, Indonesia National Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia
People And People: Chinese Modern And Contemporary Art Collections Of Gdma, Guangdong Museum Of Art(Gdma), Guangzhou, China
Living Conditions: Selections From The Gdma Collection Of Contemporary Chinese Art, Gdma, Guangzhou, China
2002
Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition: Red Land, China; Gwangju Art Museum, Korea
Korea And Chinese Painting 2002: New Expression, Seoul Culture & Art Center, Korea
Chinese Contemporary Art, Rekjavik Art Museum, Iceland
A Point In Time-Changsha, Beauty Art Museum, Changsha, China
The First Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum Of Art, China
Inaugural Exhibition: Contemporary Terracotta Warriors, The Esplanade, Singapore
Golden Harvest: Chinese Contemporary Exhibition, Croatia National Art Museum, Croatia
2001
Ornament And Abstractiono, Foundation Beyeler, Switzerland
Hotpot: Chinese Contemporary Art, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway
Towards An New Image: Twenty Years Of Contemporary Chinese Painting, National Art Museum, Beijing; Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai; Sichuan Art Museum, Chendu; Guangdong Art Museum, Guangzhou, China
Song Zhuang, Staedtische Galerie Im Buntentor Bremen & Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, Germany
2000
Between Chengdu Upriver Residence, Kunming Upriver Club, China
Portraits Of Chinese Contemporaries, The Culture Center Of Francois Mitterrand, France
Our Friends, Bauhaus University Art Gallery, Weimar, Germany
1999
OPEN BOUNDARY: THE 48th VENICE BIENNALE, Venice, Italy
"Transparence, Opacite?: 14 Chinese Contemporary Artists, France, Italy
Open Channels: The First Collecting Exhibition Of Dongyu Museum Of Fine Arts, Dongyu Museum, Shenyang, China
New Modernism For A New Millennium: Works By Contemporary Asian Artists From The Logan Collection, Linn Gallery, San Francisco, Usa
1998
The Grand Tour, Chinese Contemporary, London, England.
The First Exhibition Of The Upriver Gallery Collection, He Xiangning Art Gallery, Shenzhen, China.
It's Me!-A Profile Of Chinese Contemporary Art In The 90s, Forbidden City & Tai Miao, Beijing, China.
Beijing Prediction: Contemporary Art Of China, Beijing, China
1997
Quotation Marks: Chinese Contemporary Paintings, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
China Now, Tokyo, Japan; Basel, Switzerland.
1996
China!, Bonn Art Museum, Germany; Kuenstlerhaus, Wien, Austria
Art To Swatch, Take Part In The Design Of "The 1996 Artist Collection " Of Swatch
1995
Vision Of China: Contemporary Chinese Painting By Chinese Masters, Pacific City Club, Bangkok, Thailand
Contemporary Chinese Oil Painting Exhibition: From Realism To Post-Modernism, Theoremes Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
1994
Faces Behind The Bamboo Curtain: Works Of Yue Min Jun And Yang Shao Bin, Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong
1992
Yuan Ming Yuan Artists Exhibition, Yuan Ming Yuan, Beijing, China
1991
Contemporary Modern Art Exhibition, Beijing Friendship Guest House, China
1987
S, Art Exhibition, Hebei Museum, China
As both antagonists and anti-heroes, Yue’s hysterical cohorts equally bully the viewer and stand as subjects of ridicule. Using laughter as a denotation of violence and vulnerability, Yue’s paintings balance a zeitgeist of modern day anxiety with an Eastern philosophical ethos, positing the response to the true nature of reality as an endless cynical guffaw.
Here is a list of Artist: Fang Lijun, Xu Bing, Liu Ye, Zhuang Hui& Dan’er, Zhang Qikai, Yan Jun, Wu Jian’an, Chen Xiaowen, Chen Qi, Liu Liping, Wang Yiqiong, Xu Baozhong, Kong Guoqiao, Yang Hongwei, Jiang Miao, Huang Jingyuan, Huang Yang, Shi Xinji, Kou Jianghui, Guo Leilei, Wang Haiyang, Zhou Danmei, Yang Yumin, Xue Guangchen. Great stuff.
Today Art Museum
OPENING HOURS
10a.m.-6p.m., Closed during the Spring Festival
Free Open Days: The First Saturday of Each Month, May 18th (International Museum Day )
Opening all year round except the spring festival holiday
TICKETS
￥20.00
￥10.00(by Student Card / Elder Card / Soldier Card)
Ticket Hotline:+8610-58760600-100
Notes：
①Children of 6 years old or below, with the companion of parents, could visit the museum for free.
②Free Visit Days.
LOCATION and TRANSPORATION
TAM located in Pingod Community on Baiziwan Rd, CBD of Chaoyang District , Beijing, which is near the new sites of CCTV and BTV. Kinds of transportation are available to make an easy access for visitors.
Address: Building 4, Pingod Community, No.32 Baiziwan Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100022
Tel：+8610-58760600
Fax：+8610-58760500
By subway : Guomao Station / Shuangjing Station
By bus: take 23, 28, 35, 300, 348, 37, 57, 705, 715, 730, 801, 802, 810, 830, 907, 957, 976, special 3, special 8 and get off at Shuangjing station (or Gas Engine Factory) . Then walk about 300m towards north, you’ll arrive at the crossing of Baiziwan road. Go straight along the Baiziwan road, you’ll see the building of TAM on your right hand.
