Maleonn picked by Kanye West

A week ago today, Kanye West profiled Maleonn on West's much frequented (and influential) blog. Before a series of images he reproduces, West offers this perceptive summary of Maleonn's trajectory from leading commercial filmmmaker to rising (perhaps "risen" is the better word) global art star:

Maleonn, a Shanghai-based former advertising director decided 4 years ago to become a photographer. Maleonn was tired of trying to fit in, tired of catering to other peoples needs. Putting all practicality and financial security aside, he decided to pursue his desire in creating experimental photography, and the results speak for themselves. Portraying a very theatrical and often very abstract style, his work is highly emotional and attention catching and has gotten him recognition in many corners of the world.

West highlighted 12 Maleonn works. West's selection is impressive. (This blog profiling is not simply the results of his researchers: West is personally a major art collector, including such artists as Murakami in his collection.) Of all the images highlighted I would draw particular attention to one, for which a single print remains at the gallery. It is called "My Circus No 10 (Fire)" (below) and the available print is 40 x 60 cm in an edition of 15. (Of the 12 images, three are no longer available in either of their two editions and two are gone in at least one of the two editions; five are from very recent series and still generally available.)

This My Circus series was exhibited at the gallery in Transfigurations, Maleonn's first solo show outside Asia and "My Circus No 10 (Fire)" was a favourite work amongst gallery clients. My Circus was also the series that CBC and the New York Times highlighted in the "City of Dreams" show within the four-part China Rises series (first airing January 2006). (Note CBC is using his transliterated real name, Ma Liang, whereas his nom d'artiste is Maleonn.)

By the way, if you are not familiar with Kanye West, take a look at the magazine covers he has graced (including TIME, Rolling Stone, Ebony) and at his Wiki entry . West is a fascinating figure in the music world not least for his assumption of a moral leadership role such as his outspoken criticism of homophobia in some rap.

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By the way, in the last blog posting I noted the BBC Culture Show profiling of Maleonn. The Maleonn segment can now be viewed on YouTube. It is about three minutes and really worth viewing. He offers some interesting perspectives on his work and you see shots of his studio and his preparations for his unique staged photography that is at once theatrical, filmic and painterly. Below are several shots I took on my visit with Maleonn last October in his Shanghai studio.

Update on Maleonn on the BBC's Culture Show in China

As I noted in my posting of a few days ago (last Thursday) Maleonn has been featured on BBC's The Culture Show programme, which last week focused on China to coincide with the Olympics. The show did not air here in Canada when it was scheduled to; it seems that the South Ossetia conflict between Georgia and Russia caused BBC World News to go much longer than scheduled Saturday morning. But, even though I have yet to see the episode personally, I am very reliably informed that the show did air. A correspondent writes from the UK: "At the end of the program one of the presenters singled [Maleonn's] work out as one of the standouts from her experience while there. It was shown on BBC World this evening which was when I caught it. " If and when I am able to access a video version of this episode of The Culture Show, I will direct readers to it. At the moment, the online video function is blocked for viewing outside the UK (at least that is what the pop-up window currently says).

UPDATING OF POST: The Culture Show segment, minus the host's end-of-show comments (see above), is now up on YouTube at Maleonn on The Culture Show. It is just under three minutes. It also shows Maleonn's studio, and is very good for some overview comments from Maleonn on his family background and on his thinking behind the Days on the Cotton Candy series (just shown at the Victoria and Albert). Part of the commentary from the BBC host includes the observation that Maleonn is now thought of as "one of the most exciting new photographers of his generation" -- not only in China but outside.

Maleonn: From Recognition at the Victoria & Albert to the BBC Culture Show during the Beijing Olympics

Today's posting is a quick one. This morning I saw one of the works from Maleonn’s Days on the Cotton Candy series flash up on a BBC World News trailer (channel 194 in Toronto). It was so fast I did not firmly register which work, but it seemed to have been Days on the Cotton Candy No 6 (reproduced above).

That work and others will be profiled as part of BBC’s The Culture Show in China, which airs Eastern Standard Time at 10:10 on Saturday, August 9. It will include an interview of Maleonn and shots of his studio in Shanghai. If you happen to be around the TV for the Beijing Olympics, you may want to channel surf to BBC to see how they use his work in their show.

This series is (at least, on the surface) the most pop-culture-y of all Maleonn's series to date, and very different from a series like Secondhand Tang Poems (about which more in later blog), but, as with all his work, there is more sub-text than first meets the eye. Certainly, from an external perspective, the series' location at the intersection of fine art photography and (theatrically constructed) design caught the eye of the curators of the recently-ended huge CHINA DESIGN NOW exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Four works from Days on the Cotton Candy were displayed, and one of them (Days on the Cotton Candy No 4, below) was given pride-of-place treatment in the book published by the V and A to coincide with the exhibition by having a section of the work being reproduced as a full two-page spread as the first photograph in the 158-photo, 190-page book, immediately after the Table of Contents: Zhang Hongxing and Lauren Parker, China Design Now (London: Victoria and Albert Publishing, 2008).