East Meets West

Wang Qingsong is a product of China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Born in 1966 at the height of his homeland’s "Great Leap Forward," Wang is part of a generation that Chairman Mao wanted to lead the country into the 21st Century and glory. Wang grew up at a time when the slogan "to rebel is justified" was Mao's clarion call for China's masses. Luckily, Wang took Mao's watchwords to heart even if the founder of the People’s Republic may be turning cartwheels in his Tiananmen Square mausoleum over China's current transformation. That’s because Wang, who began his artistic career as a painter, swapped his brushes for a camera in the late 1990s. Since then, the artist has muscled his way onto the world stage with an insurgent approach to photography. You can see the epic results in "ADinfinitum," his new solo at the Philip and Patricia Frost Art Museum (10975 SW 17th St., Miami), featuring giant photographic masterpieces staged in huge spaces such as movie studios and warehouses that capture his homeland’s booming consumerism. "Known for wandering the streets of China armed with a camera, Wang states that he uses his photo-murals to witness and emulate the hopes and frustrations of the Chinese people," says curator Lidu Yi, professor and art historian at Florida International University. "'ADinfinitum' brings the story of China past and present to a new Western audience fascinated by his country’s cultural and artistic dramas.” On view through January 18, 2015, the exhibit is free, and museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Call 305-348-2890 or visit thefrost.fiu.edu.
Dec. 5-Feb. 1, 4 p.m., 2014