State of the Arts: Wang Bing's Poverty and Experience, Chinese and German Photography, Nathan Zhou's Ghost Dog

State of the Arts is our regular arts column whereby we take a look at the newest moves in Beijing's creative scene and highlight art news as well as exhibitions, artists, and openings that you should seek out.

Winter has settled in and makes it just a bit harder to muster the gumption for a trip to the city's galleries. However, if you’re a hardcore aficionado or just don’t mind the cold (unlike your humble contributor) State of the Arts has a few shows you should definitely take a look at when you’re meandering through 798.

Poverty and Experience (Nov 18-Dec 31), a Wang Bing solo exhibition at Magician Space provides fodder for a few contemplative sessions – the gallery space has been turned into a sober yet dense cinema experience with a few installations and a screening room in which the visitors can watch three works by the Chinese documentary filmmaker: "Traces," "Mrs. Fang," and "15 Hours." The latter, as its name suggests, is a 15-hour piece divided into two screening sessions, both seven and a half hours (screening times are available at the space).

The "15 Hours" piece follows the hectic rhythm of production in a sewing workshop. Whether you have the time or the attention span to follow the lengthy film, the filmmaker’s assertive and ascetic film language, and the subjects he chooses to make visible - those in the margins - struggling to make ends meet in China's big cities makes it a particularly relevant experience, especially considering recent events in Beijing where many aggressive measures taken to control and dispel its immigrant population.

Heading a little north, we land in White Box Museum of Art, which is currently hosting a German and Chinese Contemporary Photography group show under the banner Beyond the Sphere of Reproduction Contemporary Photography from China and Germany (Nov 11-Dec 23), a traveling exhibition with works by Samuel Henne, Kris Scholz, Xu Yong, Yang Jiaxi, Shang Femin, among others. Different techniques, approaches, and themes mix to bring together this easy-to-enjoy exhibition, in which the aesthetics of the artists involved – as well as their reputations – are weighty enough to make photography aficionados drop by, but without a significant relationship between them or a larger curatorial statement.

And last, but not the least, we have Tabula Rasa Gallery’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the LOFI King (Nov 25-Jan 10), a Nathan Zhou solo show. Expect here a total installation – where the artist, availing itself of painting, graffiti-expressed-novel-excerpts, and ready-mades that include mundane imagery from the artist’s life, collectibles, arcade game machines, etc. – that takes over the gallery space. The works are largely site-specific and merge effectively together creating a sense of having entered the artist’s own space.

If you're looking for more, another show still on view that could be added to this list, in case you haven’t seen it by now, is Space Station’s filled-with-abstract-art The Blue Hole, a Jin Junjie solo show (until Jan 3).

You can see more of this month's art happenings here.

Photos courtesy of Magician Space, GJ Cabrera