Liu Jianhua’s Unreal Scene

Lin Tianmiao

One of the last exhibitions I saw in Beijing before I returned to the States from living there was a solo show by Lin Tianmiao. I wished I had seen more of her work earlier in my time living in China, as it would have helped me stay positive about the mostly shallow and confused art scene there that was at the time propped up by sleazy, orientalist gallerists from Europe. Read more

Bin Zhang’s comic book art

The work of Chinese comic artist Benjamin — nee Bin Zhang — is full of energy, and bright but contracted colours. He has published his comic book in seven European countries, and his book, Orange, was a big hit in the French market. After impressing fans with his fast and dynamic drawing skills at the Comic Convention in New York, the editors at Marvel Comics started to take notice of this young digital artist. Read more

Kokomoo’s maniacal girls

Chinese artist Yan Wei, aka Kokomoo, creeps me out. Her linear, black and white drawings of cute little girls with maniacal grins and soulless eyes look deep into my psyche with a hunger for destruction and pain. Luckily, in their two dimensional forms, they are unable to leap off the page and sink their sharp little teeth into my soft flesh. Instead, I can enjoy their evil cuteness from a safe distance, while pondering the reasons why Kokomoo’s style gets darker and darker as the years go on. Read more

James Mackay’s Even Though I’m Free I Am Not

Award-winning photojournalist James Mackay’s latest project comes at a time when the world’s eyes are fixed on Burma and the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi. By photographing former political prisoners displaying the names of their colleagues and friends who remain behind bars, Even Though I’m Free I Am Not exposes the enduring pain faced by Burma’s opposition movement. Over 2,100 activists, journalists, lawyers and politicians languish in prisons across the country, and on Friday Aung San Suu Kyi will likely join them. Read more

Secret Supper Clubs

The blind date of the food world has finally arrived, and it’s proving more palatable than the awkwardness of an evening spent in superficial conversation. Secret Supper clubs are springing up in the backstreets of London: what are attics and living rooms by day get converted into makeshift restaurants catering for an evening of surprise tastes and conversations. Read more

Adam Farlie

Young British designer Adam Farlie takes a leftfield approach to how people experience interaction with objects, often taking everyday items and toying with their potential to harbour deeper meaning and greater usage than first perceived. He transforms a bed into a ‘vessel that captures and contains the audio-memories of past occupiers through sound’, allowing those who lie on the bed to recall past intimcaties or conversations from years ago, while his take on a chest of drawers’ purpose of holding records of people is similarly intriguing.