Smell That? A Whiff of China's Most Mysterious Artist

Gu Dexin never trained as an artist, and now he considers himself long retired. So even as the UCCA installs a seminal and ambitious retrospective celebrating his work (they hope to take it on tour afterward), he’s fine observing from afar. One of the most tight-lipped of China’s early avant-garde artists, Gu is best known for using rotting food as part of his practice – meat, bananas, apples. It’s art that performs itself, and that you can often smell before you see. But there’s more: paintings, expansive collections of plastic and ceramic toys, flash animations. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s in store.

See “The Important Thing is Not the Meat” at the UCCA, Mar 24-May 27.

Note: We've changed the first photo in this blog to reflect the installation at the UCCA, which was not ready when the magazine went to print. To see the original photo from an earlier installation, see p48 of our March issue. Click here to see the March issue of the Beijinger in full.

For more photos of this exhibit, view our gallery of the opening event on Mar 24.

Photos courtesy of the UCCA