Yao Juichung
Golden Baby II – Blue Eyes, 2007

ZONE: CONTEMPORARY ART (formerly known as ZONE: Chelsea Center for the Arts) proudly presents a group show of significant emerging artists from Taiwan, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Japan and North Korea, as the inaugural exhibition in its new 57th Street location. Today, contemporary Asian art is often defined by a homogenous international art market that focuses predominantly on China. Yet, by widening our peripheral vision we discover relatively young artists who are creatively engaging with their own diverse traditions while expressing their personal visions. The speculative potential of these artists, most born in the 1970’s, is extraordinary.

Yao Jui-Chung bridges the gap between traditional and contemporary. Yao’s large-scale ink drawings are based on familiar Asian pictorial strategies but include sharp contemporary content, often sexual. Golden Baby II – Blue Eyes, a plastic doll covered in gold leaf, gives the pudgy female form, embellished with tiny horns, the numinous mystery of an idol. The iconic golden baby personifies the next evolution of global art.

Front Lines: Visions from Southeast Asia reminds us that all art, like all politics, is local. The art world often seems to be a “geography of nowhere,” in which artists from across the world become interchangeable commodities. The artists in this show, in contrast, demonstrate both commitment to their own regional identities and openness to global dialogue.

November 7 – December 31, 2008 - www.zonecontemporary.com

Yao Juichung
Dreamy: puzi puzi, 2008

Yao Juichung
Guess who I am, 2008

Yao Juichung
Dreamy: heixiu heixiu, 2008

Yao Juichung
Dreamy: Lotus Spa, 2008

Yao Juichung
Yao & Maggie are on the You Tube, 2008