Jean-Michel Basquiat Julian Schnabel

F2 Gallery No.319 CaoChangDi, Chaoyang District 100015 Beijing China (city map) Send E-mail tel +86 10 - 6432 8831 www.f2gallery.com

Lucy Lu and Fabien Fryns are pleased to announce the opening of F2 Gallery in Beijing on November 5th from 3 to 7 PM with a show of works by the two 'enfants terribles' of the 1980´s New York art scene, Julian Schnabel and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The core of the exhibition is an overview of Schnabel´s graphic work and the first viewing in China of a new limited edition set by Basquiat published by the Basquiat Estate in New York earlier this year. This selection of works on paper will be complemented by a large painting by Schnabel and a screening of the critically acclaimed movie BASQUIAT, written and directed by Julian Schnabel in 1996.

Julian Schnabel (NY, 1951) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (NY, 1960-1988) are two pivotal figures of the 1980´s art scene and were both great friends of Andy Warhol. They inspired and influenced each other and Basquiat frequently referred to Schnabel, his friend and mentor, in his work.

Upon Basquiat´s tragic early death at the age of 27 (daubed "the art world's closest equivalent to James Dean and Jimmy Hendrix"), Schnabel sought to pay him the ultimate tribute by making the star packed feature film BASQUIAT in which he captured the Haitian-born artist's rawest and crudest essence. "Jean-Michel burned bright, caught on fire and burned up".

Their works are in private and public collections including New York's Museum Of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Los Angeles' Museum of Contemporary Art; Paris' Centre Georges Pompidou and London's Tate Gallery among others.

F2 Gallery is located opposite to the trendy East End Art zone and close to the world renowned 798 art district. With a totally renovated exhibition space of 300 square meters set in an idyllic courtyard, F2 Gallery aims to contribute to the cross-cultural exchange of blue chip and cutting edge contemporary art between China and the West. The gallery is also setting up an international artist-in-residence program.

On September 20th, to coincide with the opening of the Beijing Biennale and the CONVERGENCE exhibition, F2 Gallery mounted the installation HIGHER by Sunyan and Pengyu whereby the visitors had to jump (and pretty high, too) on a trampoline in order to view the works displayed by various Chinese artists, such as Zhang Huan, Sheng Qi, Yin Zhaoyang, Miao Xiaochun, Ma Han and Si Xinning.

For further information, please call Lucy Lu on +86 136 0125 8598 or Fabien Fryns on +86 1391 111 7983.

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