Video
Jia Aili
Our Century, Part 1
Filmed by Jia Aili’s friend Wen Cheng, this two-part video documents the artist creating We Are from the Century (2008–11), his largest painting to date, measuring more than 19 feet high and 49 feet wide. Part 1 includes archival video footage and offers insight into Jia’s process through a look at reference images and views of the work in progress.
Share
Related News
Artist Spotlight
Jia Aili
May 26–June 1, 2021
A pioneering member of a new generation of Chinese artists, Jia Aili creates dynamic paintings that at once emerge from and challenge art historical conventions in the context of a rapidly changing world. In his wide-ranging practice, which incorporates abstraction, portraiture, fantastic imagery, and scenes from daily life, he reflects on the dramatic modernization of society while probing the vulnerabilities of the existential human condition. For Jia, new meaning emerges out of both this interweaving of disparate narratives and the reconsideration of complex knowledge systems.
Photo: Liiibing
Video
Jia Aili
Our Century, Part 2
This video—the second segment of a two-part video documenting the production of Jia Aili’s epic painting We Are from the Century (2008–11)—includes detailed time-lapse footage showing the creation of one of the component panels, a conversation about airplanes with one of the artist’s friends, and source imagery that inspired the work.
Still from “Jia Aili: Our Century, Part 2”
New Representation
Jia Aili
Gagosian is pleased to announce the global representation of Jia Aili, one of China’s foremost contemporary artists. Born in the late 1970s, Jia has developed a practice that reflects on arts and philosophy from both East and West. While the content of his epic figurative paintings is unmistakably of his own time and cultural context, his formal virtuosity and complex layering of narrative reveal a deep and astute working knowledge of the inventions and traditions of painting from the Renaissance to the present day.
Jia Aili, Geometry in the Sky, 2017. Photo: courtesy Jia Aili Studio
Francesca Woodman
Ahead of the first exhibition of Francesca Woodman’s photographs at Gagosian, director Putri Tan speaks with historian and curator Corey Keller about new insights into the artist’s work. The two unravel themes of the body, space, architecture, and ambiguity.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2024
The Spring 2024 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available with a fresh cover design featuring Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Lead Plate with Hole (1984).
Sofia Coppola: Archive
MACK recently published Sofia Coppola: Archive 1999–2023, the first publication to chronicle Coppola’s entire body of work in cinema. Comprised of the filmmaker’s personal photographs, developmental materials, drafted and annotated scripts, collages, and unseen behind-the-scenes photography from all of her films, the monograph offers readers an intimate look into the process behind these films.
Adaptability
Adam Dalva looks at recent films born from short stories by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami and asks, What makes a great adaptation? He considers how the beloved surrealist’s prose particularly lends itself to cinematic interpretation.
Not Running, Just Going
Robert M. Rubin’s Vanishing Point Forever (RideWithBob/Film Desk Books, 2024) explores the production, reception, and lasting influence of Richard Sarafian’s 1971 film. In this excerpt, Rubin discusses the pseudonymous screenwriter Guillermo Cain (Guillermo Cabrera Infante), the famous Kowalski car, and how a nude hippie biker chick became the Lady Godiva of the internal combustion engine.
On Frederick Wiseman
Carlos Valladares writes on the life and work of the legendary American filmmaker and documentarian.
You Don’t Buy Poetry at the Airport: John Klacsmann and Raymond Foye
Since 2012, John Klacsmann has held the role of archivist at Anthology Film Archives, where he oversees the preservation and restoration of experimental films. Here he speaks with Raymond Foye about the technical necessities, the threats to the craft, and the soul of analogue film.
Whit Stillman
In celebration of the monograph Whit Stillman: Not So Long Ago (Fireflies Press, 2023), Carlos Valladares chats with the filmmaker about his early life and influences.
Lisa Lyon
Fiona Duncan pays homage to the unprecedented, and underappreciated, life and work of Lisa Lyon.
Jamian Juliano-Villani and Jordan Wolfson
Ahead of her forthcoming exhibition in New York, Jamian Juliano-Villani speaks with Jordan Wolfson about her approach to painting and what she has learned from running her own gallery, O’Flaherty’s.
Stanley Whitney: Vibrations of the Day
Stanley Whitney invited professor and musician-biographer John Szwed to his studio on Long Island, New York, as he prepared for an upcoming survey at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum to discuss the resonances between painting and jazz.
Game Changer: Alexey Brodovitch
Gerry Badger reflects on the persistent influence of the graphic designer and photographer Alexey Brodovitch, the subject of an upcoming exhibition at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.