IdleBeats' annual city exchange screen print exhibit is back
Photograph: courtesy IdleBeats
Whoever said winter in Shanghai was the slow season clearly didn’t get the memo about the slew of art exhibitions coming in hot. Alongside international, big-name exhibits, on the local front Shanghai screen print studio IdleBeats has brought back its annual collaborative exhibit, Tale of Two Cities.
Photograph: courtesy IdleBeats
The exhibition is taking place at Yili Lu’s The Space Gallery, where IdleBeats founders Nini Sum and Gregor Koerting have put 20 of their recent works in conversation with the works of Dutch screen print artist Mara Piccione. As the founder of PULL&PUSH, a silkscreen printing studio based in Groningen, Netherlands, Piccione combines both analogue and digital printing methods and uses unconventional items (think edible coloured paper and irregularly shaped pebbles) to create abstract prints.
Photograph: courtesy IdleBeats
Shanghai-based Sum has introduced a new series, Snapshot, which he describes as ‘a sophisticated set of art prints with 13 to 15 layers portraying strangers on the city’s streets.’ After three years of sticking with the same collection, Koerting is also presenting new work, a series called The Daily Life.
Over the exhibit’s two-month duration, Sum, Koerting and Piccione will participate in a silkscreen print workshop challenging audience members and participants to reimagine their product and the possibilities of the medium.
Photograph: courtesy IdleBeats
Now entering its fourth year, through a Tale of Two Cities, Sum and Koerting have created a forum for the appreciation and expression of local culture, as well as context for the exploration and exchange of different screen printing techniques. In the exhibit’s previous three-year run, they have welcomed FrenchFourch (Paris) in 2015, Sticky Fingers (Cambodia) in 2016 and Palefroi (Berlin) in 2017 – this year's exhibit featuring Mara Piccione just as strong.
📍The Space Gallery, 80 Yili Lu, near Hongqiao Lu. 8.30am-7pm. Until Fri 25 Jan. Free.