The best art exhibitions in Beijing this October

Our pick of the best art events in the capital this month

Don't miss your chance to see the work of great upcoming artists, plus some of the most talented names in contemporary art while they're showing in the capital.

Xu Bing: Thought and Method

UCCA. Until Oct 18. 100RMB. 

Globally renowned for his conceptual and installation pieces that reflect on language and communication, Xu Bing creates a space in which viewers can immerse themselves within his world here at the largest ever retrospective of his work on the Mainland. This excellent exhibition – one of the best of the year – ends next week, so we highly recommend to catch it while you can.

Andreas Mühe: Photography

Red Brick Contemporary Art Museum. Until Oct 21. 100RMB. 

Andreas Mühe's Photography exhibition focuses on his native Germany, showcasing over 60 of his classic photos from the last 15 years, as well as new work from 2018. The exhibition explores cultural and political identity through historical lenses, uncovering Germany's past and examining the changes since reunification. Throughout, Mühe questions class, authority and tradition.

Masterpieces from Tate Britain

National Art Museum of China. Until Nov 6. Free. 

Tate Britain teams up with NAMOC to showcase of some of the biggest names in British art history. The focus here is on the landscape, a genre central to the British artistic canon for almost 300 years. Chronicling this development, the exhibition surveys the works of several British artists including the naturalism of Constable, the Impressionism and Romanticism of Turner, the post-WWI Surrealism of Paul Nash and Richard Long’s contemporary landscape explorations. The event is free, but remember to bring your ID for entrance.

Tim Eitel

Pace Beijing. Until Nov 10. Free. 

German artist Tim Eitel creates beautifully composed figurative works produced from clandestinely taken photographs. Combining technical realism with the detachment of a gaze always on the outside, he voices the contemporary human experience in quiet muted tones. This exhibition will showcase the artist’s thought-provoking and ongoing exploration into 'interior space, memory and perception.'

Liang Shaoji

M Woods. Until Nov 11. Free. 

For nearly 30 years, contemporary artist Liang Shaoji has lived an almost monastic existence in remote Mount Tiantai, central Zhejiang province. It is from here that he collaborates with his muse and medium, the silkworm, to create spellbinding and transcendent works. His painstaking oeuvre involves carefully manipulating the silkworm to spin its threads – the physical markers of its very existence – over a range of media. These works, which range from sculpture and installation to film and photography, are ontological commentaries, quietly detailing the relationships between science and spirituality, humans and nature, endurance and fate, pleasure and pain, life and death.

Shōji Ueda: Retrospective

Three Shadows Photography Art Centre. Until Nov 25. 60RMB. 

From the sand dune landscapes that surrounded his home in Tottori, Japan and inspired by the Surrealist works of Man Ray and René Magritte, Shōji Ueda choreographed and photographed beautiful and bizarre worlds. This exhibition displays the breadth of his modernist oeuvre including his signature black-and-white series and his later high-fashion and commercial work.

The Heart-Mind Learns From the Eyes

Three Shadows Photography Art Centre. Until Nov 25. 60RMB. 

Based in Beijing, Michael Cherney is a successful painter, photographer, illustrator and calligrapher. Using scenes and landscapes from around China, Cherney creates a world on paper that blends both America and China, and modern and traditional. His intricate and delicate work promotes introspection, and the latest exhibition in Beijing will provide a space for thought and meditation.

Entropy

Faurschou Foundation. Until Feb 19. Free.

Just like the dispersed and random state that is 'entropy', seven contemporary Chinese artists, each born from a different stage in China’s rapid social and economic development, come together to tell the variegated and complex experiences that together make up 'contemporary Chinese art'.

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