Art

Snap away!

TM Wong is obsessed with Polaroid cameras - the most popular type of instant camera, invented by US scientist Edwin Land in 1948. Wong bought his first Polaroid camera in 1992 and has been collecting instant cameras since. His collection of 1,042 cameras was honored as the biggest by World Records Academy in 2011.

Wong's collection will be on show in Guangdong province's capital Guangzhou from April 21 to May 20. Wong will share the stories behind some of his antique cameras.

He will invite Polaroid photographers to offer tips on taking instant photos and hold a workshop about using instant cameras to record travels.

The lecturers may surprise you by snapping instant photos of you. But there's no need to dress up or wear makeup, because being true to yourself is the core of taking photos with an instant camera, organizers say.

April 21- May 20. Third floor of GOELIA 225 Building, 225 Beijing Road, Yuexiu district, Guangzhou. 020-8336-0050.

Get real

The China Oil Art Society is holding the second Chinese Realism Oil Art Competition and Exhibition at the National Art Museum of China.

Titled Visible Poetry, the exhibition presents 208 short-listed oil stills, portraits and landscapes, selected from more than 5,000 entries from throughout the country.

The competition and exhibition were initiated in 2008 to "help promote the development of oil art that truly reflects contemporary Chinese people and their lives", organizers say.

9 am-5 pm, until April 25. National Art Museum of China, 1 Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-6401-7076.

Art of business

Sculptor Qin Weihong is presenting his Fairytales collection in Beijing's Up Space Gallery.

In partnership with the fashion label EQ:IQ, Qin has created a series of sculptures to discuss the relationship between people's visible beautiful attire and their invisible dark desires. The show also displays his perspectives on crossover art projects with commercial fashion labels. Qin believes they bring art closer to the public and is, therefore, positive.

His sculptures resemble fashionable and colorful home decorations. These works will also be included in his upcoming solo exhibition in Today Art Museum this November.

10 am-10 pm, April 20-21. Up Space, N2-46, F4, Tower N2, North Area, Sanlitun Village, 11 Sanlitun Lu, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-6416-9270.

An abstraction

Seven artists - Bai Yiluo, Chai Yiming, Chen Xi, Monika Lin, Lore Vanelslande, Wu Gaozhong and Zhu Ye - have gathered for a joint art show to promote abstract art.

Using lines, rhythms, repetitions, textures and colors, the artists explore such concepts as the unknown, the fragility and mystery of organic life, group dynamics, menace, tension and the links between the human body and nature.

Until May 25. OV Gallery, Room 207, 4A Building, 50 Moganshan Lu, Shanghai. 186-1680-7704.

On their toes

As part of the 12th Meet in Beijing Arts Festival, the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) will hold a photo exhibition on Cuban National Ballet's past China tours.The troupe toured China in 1961, 1964 and 2002, and will perform at the NCPA on April 28.

The photos on display include performances by the group's founder Alicia Alonso and her meeting with Mao Zedong and Peking Opera artist Mei Lanfang.

April 21- 28, National Center for the Performing Arts. 010-6655-0000.

Flying and falling

Han Shaoguang's solo show All That Flies High is Not Birds and All That Dives Deep down is Not Fishes aims to dispel criticisms that the themes and methodologies of contemporary Chinese painting are becoming increasingly unitary.

April 21-25. Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, 27 Duolun Lu, Shanghai. 021-6587-5996.

Shanghai scape

Landscape 9210 - Shen Fan Solo Exhibition is on display at the ShanghART main space.

The exhibition features three new big installations. The first is an installation of oil paintings on canvas, while the other two are mixed media.

Until May 15. ShanghART H-Space, Bldg 18, 50 Moganshan Lu, Shanghai. 021-6276-3275.

Concert

Gao Xiaosong's songs

Chinese songwriter and pop singer Gao Xiaosong will perform his The Youth Around Here concert in Beijing on April 28.

The concert gathers established singers, including Liu Huan, Lao Lang, Zheng Jun and Ye Pei, who have performed Gao's works during the past decades. Singers such as Sa Dingding, Li Yuchun and Tan Weiwei, who will collaborate with Gao for the first time, will perform Gao's new songs.

8 pm, April 28. MasterCard Center (formerly Wukesong Arena), Beijing. 4006-228-228.

Talented trio

Cellist Wang Jian, pianist Chen Sa and guitarist Yang Xuefei will join the China National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) Concert Hall Orchestra for a concert at the opening show of NCPA's May Festival 2012. They will play Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Trumpets; Johann Sebastian Bach's Guitar Concerto, Arranged from Violin Concerto in E Major; Joseph Haydn's Piano Sonata No 60 in C Major; and Robert Schumann's Adagio and Allegro, Op 70.

Wang has performed with many of the world's leading orchestras and produced many recordings. His latest release is an album of short pieces for cello and guitar titled Reverie.

As a soloist, Chen, who's described as "one of the brightest performers of her generation" by Classical FM in London, has been delighting audiences in European countries, China, Japan and the United States.

Yang is a Beijing guitarist, now based in London and is also internationally acclaimed. She is the first Chinese guitarist to launch an international career as a professional musician.

7:30 pm, May 9. National Center for the Performing Arts, Beijing. 010-6655-0000.

Steely songs

Composer Ping Anjun, from Anshan, Liaoning province, will present works spanning his more than 40-year career.

Most are inspired and written by the grassroots people of the "Capital of Iron and Steel".

Songs include symphonies, ironworkers' anthems, ballads and children's songs performed by the China National Symphony Orchestra and such singers as Dai Yuqiang and Lu Jihong.

7:30 pm, May 5. Poly Theater, 14 Dongzhimen Nandajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-6500-1188.

American piano duo

American pianists John Salmon and Antonio Truyols perform in Shanghai this Sunday.

John Salmon's broad repertoire covers classics from such masters as Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert through contemporary music. He has championed, and been at the forefront of, performing new works by celebrated composers, including Dave Brubeck and Nikolai Kapustin.

Antonio Truyols is a pianist and composer performing primarily in the Greensboro triad and Washington DC metro areas. He has shared the stage with such big names as Lee Konitz, Curtis Fuller and Branford Marsalis.

7:45 pm, April 22. Shanghai Oriental Art Center, 425 DingxiangLu, Pudong, Shanghai. 021-6854-1234.

Musical

Star still shines

Set against the 1929 British silent movie classic Piccadilly, Piccadilly Revisited celebrates the life and love of Anna May Wong - Hollywood's first Chinese film star - through contemporary music performance.

Piccadilly Revisited uses the story of Wong's character, Shosho, as a metaphor for Wong's real life. It aims to liberate Wong from being pigeonholed and enable audiences to rediscover her artistry and legacy.

Wong appeared in more than 50 US and European films, making her the first global Chinese-American movie star.

But she says she experienced racism in her career and became frustrated with the stereotypical "Oriental" roles she was given.

She died from a heart attack at age 56 in 1961, after a long struggle with liver cirrhosis.

"Wong was a real style icon - the Lady Gaga of her day," the show's co-writer and director David Tse Ka-Shing says.

"But she was also stifled by her public persona. Her experience raises important questions about diversity and integration that are still relevant to British East Asian artists today."

7:30 pm, April 21 and 22. Broadway Cinematheque Moma, F3, Building T4, The North Area, Moma, 1 Xiangheyuan Road, Beijing. 010-8438-8202.

Workshop

Unmasking masks

To experience how actors make use of a mask to speak to audiences, join "A Moment Across the Stage - Mask Theater Workshop.

French artist Claude Roche, who has been involved in mask theater for more than 40 years, will usher you into the world of disguise. He has created some 30 plays performed by actors in masks in the United States and France. He has also borrowed elements from China.

This course is not about picking up the technical aspects of mask making. Instead, it is about using one's imagination to experience how it feels to be behind a mask when onstage and exploring stage space.

In French with Chinese translation.

10 am-5 pm, April 21-22. Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), La Suite, 798 Art Zone, 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-5780-0200.

Quick Pick

In honor of a leader

The Beijing Museum of the Confucius Temple and the Imperial Academy is staging a group exhibition for artists from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The show is organized by the two countries' culture ministries. It displays more than 50 Korean colored ink paintings, embroideries, posters and prints that celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung.

9 am-4:30 pm, until April 20. 13-15 Guozijian Street, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-8401-1977.

China Daily