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MEI XIAN QIU		EARLY SPRING Curated by Phil Tarley at ARTIST’S CORNER, a new contemporary photography gallery in Hollywood.

Hollywood, CA — EARLY SPRING opens Friday September 21 st and continues through Sunday, October 21, 2012. The opening night reception for the artist starts at 7pm. EARLY SPRING features four new works and a selection of her most iconic and favorite pieces – all of which are printed on a plexiglass. The show’s catalog, its front and back covers also printed on plexiglass, is signed and numbered in an edition of 100 and will be available for sale as EARLY SPRING’S opening night special. Visually and intellectually sophisticated, Mei Xian Qiu’s colorful artworks have strong currents of political, sexual and racial subtext. All the while, this whimsical artist infuses her photography with a campy cleverness and a painterly, highly cultivated eye — swirled together in a delightful melange of post-modern sensability. Mei Xian Qiu is a Los Angeles artist working in a totally new cultural paradigm. Mei was born in the town of Pekalongan, on the island of Java, Indonesia, to a third generation Chinese minority family. She has lived all over Europe, is based in Los Angeles and makes frequent trips back to China. “I feel 100% Chinese Indonesian, and 100% American. I am a part of a kind of floating culture. My sense of individual identity becomes linked to something ever shifting and transient.” The Los Angeles Art Association has taken Mei Xian Qui’s work to Photo LA and to Art Basel in Switzerland, facilitating sold out shows. Artist Corner’s curator, Phil Tarley, also a member of LAAA, has watched Mei Xian Qiu’s stratospheric rise as an internationally acclaimed Los Angeles artist. Phil Tarley is a Fellow of the American Film Institute and an artist member of the Los Angeles Art Association. As an art and pop culture critic he regularly posts stories on the Wow Report; writes about art and photography for Fabrik Magazine; contributes to Art Week LA and is a juror on the Lark International Art Competition. He has recently been appointed to a City of West Hollywood task force on Public Art Installation. With his partner Carlos Benitez, Tarley opened Artist’s Corner, Hollywood’s newest contemporary photography gallery. EARLY SPRING at ARTIST’S CORNER 6585 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90038 A bright red building on the corner of Seward Street. Telephone: (323) 464-3900 Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday by appointment. Visit the gallery’s website at: http://bookblocks.us/ArtistsCornerGallery.html Read Fabrik’s MEI XIAN QIU Cover Story, written by Phil Tarley now by clicking on this link.

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“Rock Paper Scissors”

A selection of works on paper

Location: Coagula Curatorial 977 Chung King Road, Los Angeles CA 90012

Exhibition : August 8th through September 3rd

Opening Reception: Saturday, August 11, 2012
Time: 5:00pm-10:00pm

Artists: Linda Arreola, Ching Ching Cheng, Dale Davis, Chuck Feesago, CiCi “Segura” Gonzalez, Lucinda Luvaas, Poli Marichal, Jayme Odgers, Marianne Sadowski, Raphael Noz, Leigh Salgado, Mei Xian Qui, Shawn Waco

Curated by Abel Alejandre

Thirteen contemporary artists are showcased in a special selection of works on paper. The versatility of paper itself will be demonstrated. The exhibit will be showing in the main gallery. Please join us for an exciting event!

Coagula Curatorial
coagulacuratorial.com

977 Chung King Road, Los Angeles CA 90012
OFFICE: (424) 2-COAGULA
88gallery@gmail.com

The gallery is open Wednesday thru Saturday, Noon – 5 PM and by appointment.

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HYPERALLERGIC ARTICLE:

A Hundred Flowers Bloom When China Invades

• by An Xiao on April 26, 2012

Mei Xian Qiu, “8099” (all images courtesy the artist)

LOS ANGELES — In 1957, Mao Zedong launched the Hundred Flowers Campaign. It was to be a glorious liberalization, an flourishing of the arts, intellectualism and culture. A few weeks later, threatened by the tide of criticism sweeping in, the Communist Party would crack down on their blooming flowers. Mao’s declaration to “let a hundred flowers bloom” is often mistranslated as “Let a thousand flowers bloom.”

Mei Xian Qiu, “In the Manner of Gabrielle D’Estrees”

Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom, a photographic series by Los Angeles artist Mei Xian Qiu, pays reference to this brief period in Chinese history. The first place winner of the 2012 juried competition at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Flowers is a series of digital photos on Plexiglas that depict, as Qiu’s introductory placard says, “a Chinese takeover of the United States.”

The installation at LACDA creates an ominous vibe to the show, as two of the men from the photos kiss in black-and-white slow motion while an ambient soundtrack resounds through the space. But the takeover, far from a bloody invasion, is filled with cherry blossoms, a “sweet conceit of romance and violence,” as Qiu writes in her 2011 statement.

Qiu plays with this inversion and cross-cultural exchange further by working not with Chinese nationals but “Pan Asian Americans who could be perceived as Chinese,” as well as artists and academics who study classical China. The military uniforms themselves come from a photography studio in Beijing that allows foreign visitors to re-enact images from the Cultural Revolution. And the battle more often comes in the form of kissing and holding flowers.

The images, already strong, are just the start of a larger series exploring this topic. Qiu tells me she has plans to do “different storylines,” with “different little substories of the main story.” Qiu’s series, like China’s rise on the world stage, is complex and fascinating.

Mei Xian Qiu, “8990”

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TELEBASEL INTERVIEW:

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