Our Story
Eli Klein Gallery has an international reputation as one of the foremost galleries specializing in contemporary Chinese art and continues to advance the careers of its represented artists and hundreds of other Chinese artists with whom it has collaborated. The Gallery has been instrumental in the loan of artwork by Chinese artists to over 100 museum exhibitions throughout the world, has published 40 books/catalogues, and has organized more than 75 exhibitions for Chinese art at our prestigious venues in New York City. Our artists have been featured in the The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Art Forum, Newsweek, ARTnews and have been on CNN and countless other international broadcasts, publications and online critical reviews.
Located at 398 West Street (between Charles and W 10th) in the trendiest part of the West Village, just blocks from the new Whitney Museum and the commencement point for the High Line. In a historic, landmarked Federal-style row house enjoying special cultural and aesthetic value to the City of New York, Eli Klein Gallery occupies 3 levels of the building, boasting 13-foot ceilings on the ground floor.
The Gallery was founded by Eli Klein in 2007. During these formative years, it established a reputation for introducing to the West fresh, contemporary, and often challenging works by rising Chinese talents. Now, as the leading dealer of Chinese contemporary art outside of China, Eli Klein actively promotes cross-cultural awareness and investment at the highest level amongst some of the world’s most influential nations.
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The artist duo presents two installations, one in a seemingly stable format and the other in constant motion, recalling the post-pandemic socio-political conditions around the world. With their endless fascination with mechanics and systems, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu suggest the ways in which our society is reminiscent of a machine, with its core logic sometimes apparent and sometimes concealed.
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"1.5: 15 Years of Eli Klein Gallery" is currently on view at Eli Klein Gallery, in celebration of the Gallery's 15-year journey in contemporary Asian art.
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Video: Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, “No Matter Who You Are”, 2022. Barrel, water, ink, plastic hand, mechanics, copper wires. 36 x 22 x 22 inches (91.5 x 56 x 56 cm).
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's “What did the masters come to the east for” consists of two pieces of work: Fountain by Marcel Duchamp and Composition in Red, Blue, and Yellow by Piet Mondrian, which embodies the encounter of classic Western art and Eastern culture. Inspired from everyday life, Hu Yinping invited aunties from her rural hometown to reinterpret and create, with knitting needles and yarn, their own versions of Fountain and Composition in Red, Blue, and Yellow. Thanks to the ingenuity and creativity of these aunties, seemingly inaccessible masterpieces that take a prominent position in art history have been transformed into 1.5 pieces of playful artwork.
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"1.5: 15 Years of Eli Klein Gallery" is currently on view at Eli Klein Gallery, in celebration of the Gallery's 15-year journey in contemporary Asian art.
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Image 1, 2: Installation View, Hu Yinping.
Image 3: Hu Yinping, What Did the Masters Come to the East for?_Mondrain_Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow, 2021. Wool, cotton, fiber, wood, 33 1/2 x 33 1/2 inches (85 x 85 cm).
Image 4: Hu Yinping, What Did the Masters Come to the East for?_Duchamp_Fountain, 2021. Wool, cotton, fiber, wood, 12 1/8 x 18 1/8 x 15 3/4 inches (31 x 46 x 40 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Eli Klein Gallery © Hu Yinping.
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’s pieces are inspired by the dove-keeping tradition in Hong Kong and New York City. While doves are commonly associated with peace and freedom, they are actually attended to and watched over by their fanciers. Both sculptures imply an interesting relationship between urban creatures and the fast-pace urban environment that surrounds them.
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"1.5: 15 Years of Eli Klein Gallery" is currently on view at Eli Klein Gallery, in celebration of the Gallery's 15-year journey in contemporary Asian art.
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Images 1 and 2: Angela Yuen, “Urban Dove Fanciers”, 2022. Whistles, bird training equipment, wires, perspex, plastic toys, beads, resin, LED lights, motor, gears. 16 1/4 x 15 3/4 x 22 7/8 inches (41 x 40 x 58 cm)
Images 3 and 4: Angela Yuen, “Free Like An Urban Dove”, 2022. Bamboo, sequins, resin, perspex, LED lights. 5 1/2 x 13 3/8 x 7 5/8 inches (14 x 34 x 19.5 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Eli Klein Gallery © Angela Yuen
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OPEN TODAY – We are pleased to announce that Cui Xiuwen’s works are currently on view at the exhibition “A Window Suddenly Opens: Contemporary Photography in China” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Nov 4, 2022 - Jan 7, 2024). Her work Sanjie has been selected as the cover image for the forthcoming catalogue published by Yale University Press.
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A Window Suddenly Opens is the Hirshhorn’s first survey of photography by leading multigenerational Chinese artists made between the 1990s and 2000s. It showcases 186 artworks made between 1993 and 2022, of which 141 are a landmark promised gift to the Hirshhorn from pioneering collector of Chinese art Larry Warsh.
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As a multimedia artist investigating human sexuality and spirituality and best known for her statements on feminism, Cui Xiuwen (1967-2018) experimented with photography, video, and painting and considered the self and soul as simultaneously subject and object. Her works are in the collections of major institutions such as the Tate Modern, UK; Centre Pompidou, Paris; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; and the National Art Museum of China, Beijing, among many others.
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Image 1: Cui Xiuwen, One Day in 2004 No.1, 2004. Chromogenic print, 59 x 57 7/8 inches.
Images 2-5: Cui Xiuwen, Sanjie, 2004. Color photograph, 38 1/4 x 219 1/2 inches.
Courtesy of the artist and Eli Klein Gallery © Cui Xiuwen.
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’s Journal of Emotions is an AI-generated, digital-image journal documenting the artist’s emotions. In a daily life where virtual experiences intertwine with reality, our emotions are often affected by people and events around us, whether it’s in the physical world or the virtual one. Created through Human-AI collaboration, Journal of Emotions is an original piece of digital art featuring an interplay of subjectivity and objectivity. The piece includes a series of AI-generated digital images and randomly shaped, actual 3D sculptures - called “emotion blind boxes” - which build a seamless link between the real world and the virtual world, opening up a vast space for imagination.
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“1.5: 15 Years of Eli Klein Gallery” is currently on view at Eli Klein Gallery, in celebration of the Gallery’s 15-year journey in contemporary Asian art.
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Images: Fei Jun, EmoLog, 2021. Sculpture: Data generated image, blind box; Video: 16 seconds. Courtesy of the artist and Eli Klein Gallery © Fei Jun
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presents a pair of paintings under the titles of “The Solid One” and “The Melting Half”, with the former measuring half the height of the latter. “The Solid One” portrays mountains whose history extended much longer than that of humanity. “The Melting Half” depicts a snowy mountain that came into being after snow crept down into the waters. Through artistic creations on mountains and waters that have inspired many works throughout the history of art, Kurt Chan explores the “ones” or “halves” involved in the image of mountain ranges and historical geography in these two works.
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"1.5: 15 Years of Eli Klein Gallery" is currently on view at Eli Klein Gallery, in celebration of the Gallery's 15-year journey in contemporary Asian art.
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Image 1: Installation View, Kurt Chan Yuk Keung.
Image 2: Kurt Chan Yuk Keung, The Melting Half, 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 1/8 inches (76 x 102 cm).
Image 3: Kurt Chan Yuk Keung, The Solid One, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 16 1/8 x 20 inches (41 x 51 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Eli Klein Gallery © Kurt Chan Yuk Keung.
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presents a pair of paintings under the titles of “The Solid One” and “The Melting Half”, with the former measuring half the height of the latter. “The Solid One” portrays mountains whose history extended much longer than that of humanity. “The Melting Half” depicts a snowy mountain that came into being after snow crept down into the waters. Through artistic creations on mountains and waters that have inspired many works throughout the history of art, Kurt Chan explores the “ones” or “halves” involved in the image of mountain ranges and historical geography in these two works.
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"1.5: 15 Years of Eli Klein Gallery" is currently on view at Eli Klein Gallery, in celebration of the Gallery's 15-year journey in contemporary Asian art.
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Image 1: Installation View, Kurt Chan Yuk Keung.
Image 2: Kurt Chan Yuk Keung, The Melting Half, 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 1/8 inches (76 x 102 cm).
Image 3: Kurt Chan Yuk Keung, The Solid One, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 16 1/8 x 20 inches (41 x 51 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Eli Klein Gallery © Kurt Chan Yuk Keung.
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Juxtaposed with its expert prototype Samantha, ’s Samantha 1/2 is an interactive painting that allows the audience to determine its process and completion. The viewer is invited to pick a ring of their preference and fill in with a single random color, or a mixture of colors. This interaction between the artist and the viewer-turned-participant symbolizes the connections and uncertainties that exist within time and space. The mutability of one's role and perspective is challenged and complicated by this exchange.
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Visit the gallery and participate in completing the painting. “1.5: 15 Years of Eli Klein Gallery” is currently on view at Eli Klein Gallery, in celebration of the Gallery’s 15-year journey in contemporary Asian art.
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Image 1: Installation view, Shen Zhenglin.
Image 2: Shen Zhenglin, Samantha, 2014. Acrylic and oil on canvas. 48 x 71 7/8 inches (122 x 182.5 cm).
Image 3: Shen Zhenglin, Samantha 1/2, 2022. Acrylic on canvas. 11 7/8 x 15 3/4 inches (30 x 40 cm). To be completed by viewers.
Image 4: Shen Zhenglin, Samantha 1/2, 2022. Acrylic on canvas. 11 7/8 x 15 3/4 inches (30 x 40 cm). In progress. Courtesy of the artist and Eli Klein Gallery © Shen Zhenglin.
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