Up Next: Ten Shows for 2021

Previews BY The Editors from Almanac 2021

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1 CHEN CHIEH-JEN

Art Sonje Center, Seoul

MAR 11–MAY 2

“Traumatized Body and Transformed Self” is a survey of Taiwan-born artist Chen Chieh-jen’s moving-image and photographic installations from the last two decades. The show will highlight the artist’s sustained interest in the impacts that today’s highly capitalized, technologized, and controlled societies have on the human body and spirit.

2 AGE OF YOU

Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai

JAN 29–AUG 14

Curated by Shumon Basar, Douglas Coupland, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, the group exhibition “Age of You” will survey how we define individuality amid accelerated change in the 21st century. The show’s 13 chapters will comprise contributions by more than 70 artists, including Farah Al-Qasimi, Ian Cheng, and Christine Sun Kim.

Installation view of SATOSHI FUJIWARA’s Crowd Landscape, 2019, double-sided color print on 18oz PVC, 2200 × 220 cm, at “Age of You,” Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Toronto, 2019–20. Courtesy MOCA Toronto.

Production image of YU JI’s Wasted Mud, 2020, at Chisenhale Gallery, London, 2020. Courtesy the artist.

3 YU JI

Chisenhale Gallery, London

JAN 30–APR 25

Shanghai-based multidisciplinary artist Yu Ji will present a new commission in “Wasted Mud,” her first solo exhibition at an institution in the United Kingdom. The “living sculpture” will incorporate water and plants, alluding to the transformation of London’s natural and urban landscapes, particularly its rivers and canals.

4 RAYYANE TABET

Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah

MAR 12–JUN 15

Since 2016, Rayyane Tabet has been creating installations and sculptures that depart from German diplomat Baron Max von Oppenheim’s ethically dubious archaeological mission in northeast Syria in 1929. Tabet’s exhibition “Exquisite Corpse” will include new works that extend his exploration of this history, such as the archive-installation Portrait of Faek Borkhoche (2021).

5 CANDICE LIN

Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou

MAR 21–MAY 24

Candice Lin traces 19th-century migrant labor histories that have been overwritten with colonial and racialized rhetoric. At the first stop of her traveling solo show, “Pigs and Poison,” her installations and virtual-reality animation will bridge the dehumanization of immigrant workers in the past and present.

Installation view of KHADIM ALI’s Invisible Border 2, 2020, hand and machine embroidered, stitched and dye ink on fabric, 260 × 220 cm, at Lahore Biennale 02, Lahore Biennale Foundation, 2020. Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane.

6 KHADIM ALI

Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane

APR 10–JUN 5

Inspired by the Persian Book of Shahnameh (c. 977–1010 CE), Hazara artist Khadim Ali’s tapestries depict battle scenes that reference contemporary and mythological conflicts. At his solo exhibition, the nine-meter-long weaving Invisible Border (2020) will be displayed alongside a sound installation and miniature paintings similarly probing war and persecution.

7 TRUST & CONFUSION

Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong

APR–DEC

Curators Xue Tan and Raimundas Malasaukas conceived of “Trust & Confusion” as an exhibition and series of live events unfolding over eight months to reflect on our emotional lives amid the tensions of the pandemic era. The project will comprise more than 15 new commissions, 40 audio works, and five performances.

8 CARLOS VILLA

Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

AUG 13–JAN 3, 2022

Carlos Villa’s posthumous retrospective “Worlds in Collision” will highlight the Filipino-American artist, teacher, curator, and activist’s role in initiating conversations on inclusiveness and diversity in the arts in the United States. Exhibits will include Painted Cloak (recto) (1971), an example of how Villa brought together Austronesian and European avant-garde influences.

CARLOS VILLA, Ritual, 1970–71, mixed media on unstretched canvas, 247 × 239 × 10 cm. Photo by Jay Jones. Copyright and courtesy the estate of the artist.

9 CHIM↑POM

Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

OCT 21–JAN 30, 2022

Whether addressing the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster or examining the history of urban hygiene, Tokyo-based collective Chim↑Pom tackles social issues with humor and subversion. Their retrospective will shine a light on their distinctive approach to art and activism with works from throughout their 16-year practice.

Installation view of CHIM↑POM’s Build-Burger, 2016, three floors, office supplies, air conditioner, furniture, carpet, others, dimensions variable, at “Scrap and Build: So see you again tomorrow, too?,” Anomaly, Tokyo, 2016. Photo by Morita Kenji. Courtesy Anomaly and Mujin-to Production, Tokyo.

10 HUNG LIU

National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

LATE 2021

“Portraits of Promised Lands, 1968–2020” is a retrospective of Changchun-born, California-based painter Hung Liu. Spotlighting more than 50 canvases, the show will span Liu’s experience of the Mao regime in China, her immigration to the US in the 1980s, and her confrontations with the exoticization of Asian women.

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