Goodfella in ShanghaiJohn Chen and Jian Jiang are two 20-something Scorsese fans who want to spread underground arts through their gallery and retail store Goodfella. According to Chen, the owners "saw a need to provide a positive platform that will educate like-minded audiences with our knowledge and products, to introduce established and upcoming overseas artists, and to push local artists.”

The artwork, apparel, and home furnishings come from both international designers and Chinese artists such as fashion designer Zhang Da and iconoclast Ai Weiwei. Chen and Jiang also organize shows to promote up-and-coming artists and designers.

Goodfella Running Gallery
1618 Nanjing Road (West)
4th floor Jiuguang, Jing An District
Shanghai
+(86) 21-62887189

地址: 上海市 南京西路 Y436-437, 久光YES!馆, 4F, Y436-437

"Cosmos Gaudí, Architecture, Geometry and Design" is at Shanghai's Museum of Contemporary Art until October 15th. According to MOCA's website, this "is the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of Gaudi's work to come to China and the first to fully capture the artistic vitality of both his architecture and interior design."

Features include archititectural studies of Gaudí's sinuous Modernist designs, building models, and a Spanish-language documentary of his work.

China's fascination with contemporary art, design, and architecture is just beginning, and will only grow in the coming years. (Hint to universities: now's the time to step up your design programs!)

MOCA Shanghai
People's Park, 231 Nanjing West Road, Shanghai
Tel: +86 21 63279900
mocashanghai.org

Beijing's "Bird's Nest" StadiumAi Weiwei, sometimes-controversial artist and designer of Beijing's Olympic Stadium, has announced his wishes to disconnect himself from his much-publicized creation. Ai had designed the "bird's nest" stadium with Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron, but is now having second thoughts. He has recently expressed his disapproval of the Chinese government's "tendency to use culture for the purpose of propaganda." (Ai spent his childhood years in China's remote Xingjiang province, where his father, the poet Ai Qing, had been exiled during the cultural revolution.)

What remains unclear is what specific event(s) prompted Ai's decision, since he has always been a critic of the state, and designed the stadium as a critic of the state. Whatever the answer, in this case the "art for art's sake" mode of thinking doesn't cut it anymore.