ChinaSquare has announced the launch of a new exhibition project, Ai Want to Love: Ai Jing’s Solo Exhibition in NYC . Her works will be on view from October 27th, 2009, to December 27th, 2009. This project is a collaboration with the renowned design furniture line BoConcept NYC. We cordially invite you to attend the opening reception on October 27th, 6-9 pm, at the BoConcept Soho store at 69 Greene Street (between Spring and Broome Streets).

Crossing over from music to the field of visual art, Ai Jing tackles the subject of “love” in an ongoing series of paintings on canvas with mixed media. The artist strips bare the concept of love through the painstaking process of collaging cutout lettering, spontaneous graffiti and newspaper onto canvas infused with oil paint. She employs a palette of mainly primary colors--red, yellow, and blue--that shifts at times to a range of monochrome whites, grays, and blacks. The repetitive lettering, along with the elaborate layering of paints and the references to dates and social events contained in newspaper clippings, conveys Ai Jing’s deep concern for the lack of love and faith in modern society. These works are a heartfelt message to everyone living in the contemporary world.

Ai Jing, born in Shenyang in Liaoning Province of China, is a singer-songwriter who has produced five albums of her own music as well as a number of EP albums and singles. During the 1990s, Ai Jing’s unique voice was popular throughout Asia, and her ground-breaking record sales resulted in successful concert tours in Japan and other countries. In 1999, Ai took up painting, and in 2007 she began to exhibit her work professionally. Her first solo show took place at the Today Art Museum in Beijing in 2008, and in 2009 she has exhibited at galleries in Shanghai, Beijing and New York.

This exhibition is curated by Sally Wu, a New York-based fashion designer who has been closely involved with fashion, contemporary art, and film productions. As a fashion curator, she was a member of the curatorial team responsible for the 2008 exhibition Shanghai Kaleidoscope at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, a show that examined the interplay between art, fashion and architecture in Shanghai’s contemporary urban culture. She has served as an advisor to the 2008 Asian Contemporary Art Fair’s fashion presentation, and to the 2009 Paper under Knife Paper Ball at New York’s Museum of Art and Design. She is a curatorial advisor for the current Chelsea art project ”The Drop: Urban Artfill.” In addition, she was the associate producer of A Workshop for Peace, a documentary film about the architectural competition for United Nations building, directed by Peter Rosen, and she is currently producing two documentary films in association with Peter Rosen Productions.

This exhibition perfectly blended fine art into a setting of modern design furniture is made possible through the generous support of Niki and Shaokao Cheng, owners of BoConcept®, a forward-thinking, sleek and chic furniture line in New York.