Design Miami/Basel 2007    Jun 12 - Jun 16, 2007

Contrasts Gallery to Participate in Design Miami/Basel 2007, 12th – 16th June

Booth 11, Markthalle Basel
Viaduktstrasse 10, CH-4051, Basel, Switzerland

Preview/Vernissage: June 11 (by invitation only)
Collectors Preview: 3pm-7pm
Press Preview: 6pm-7pm
Vernissage: 7pm-10pm

Regular Show Hours: June 12-June 16, 10am-4pm
VIP Nocturne (i.e. late hours): June 13, 7pm-10pm

Featuring works by:
Patrice Butler, André Dubreuil, Natanel Gluska, Shao Fan, Peter Ting, WOKmedia, Xue Tao, XYZ Design

Contrasts Gallery will present new works at Design Miami/Basel by artists from both China and the West.

Contrasts Gallery is committed to presenting works that are made by multi-discipline Chinese and international artists/designers who create work in China that reflects contemporary Chinese culture, where there is no industry that can encourage local industrial design or advance production technology. By adopting the industrial designers’ attitude, and using Chinese traditional art and craft techniques, works in this show are handmade to experiment with 5,000 years of Chinese culture, yet reflect the excitement of contemporary life in China today. This is well illustrated by WOKmedia’s ‘toy’ furniture.

WOKmedia, the London-based design collaborative, has been enjoying a residency in Shanghai sponsored by Contrasts Gallery. Working with traditional furniture-makers, the design duo has produced a set of children’s furniture entitled ‘Made in China’, which incorporates carved models of children’s toys into the structure of the pieces. In their own words, ‘tradition gets penetrated by mass produced consumer goods’. Finished in white lacquer, the furniture combines a modern aesthetic and playful spirit with traditional vernacular furniture styles from China.

XYZ Design, a young group of Chinese designers, whose work was recently collected by the Weisman foundation, will be presenting a chair and sofa from the new “Fake” series. Here, materials from fake luxury brand handbags are juxtaposed to upholster a chair that is a hybrid of traditional Chinese and western Rococo styles. The result is a bombardment of visual stimuli, which reflect the rapid changes in China, the onslaught of consumer culture, and the aspirations of a new generation of Chinese people.

Works by the artists Xue Tao and Shao Fan will be presented which show Chinese contemporary art as not solely the blind acceptance of western conceptualism, but primarily as the reinvention of traditions. Contrasts Gallery will also display porcelain works by Patrice Butler, André Dubreuil, and Peter Ting, as well as works by Natanel Gluska.

About Contrasts Gallery
Contrasts Gallery is dedicated to presenting creative excellence in art and design from the East and West to the international art community. Founded by Pearl Lam in 1992 in Hong Kong, the Gallery nurtures and promotes creative talents where art, architecture and design intersect. The Gallery’s exhibition program is designed to create new cultural exchanges by representing artists from all parts of the world working in divergent traditions and across disciplines. Contrasts Gallery is based in Shanghai with additional galleries and offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Hangzhou.

Gallery Contact:
Sarah Allen +44 787 576 0862
sarahallen@contrastsgallery.com

Press Contact:
Michelle DiLello +1 212 947 4557
michelle@susangrantlewin.com

For further information, visit www.contrastsgallery.com or email info@contrastsgallery.com