SINGAPORE.- From 29 August to 25 October 2009, the Singapore Art Museum presents Cities Here and Now: Paintings and Installation Works by Lu Hao, the first solo museum exhibition in Southeast Asia for internationally renowned Chinese contemporary artist Lu Hao. Lu has participated in many prestigious international exhibitions and biennales since the late 1990s, including the 1999 Venice Biennale, the 2002 São Paulo Bienal as well as the 2007 Documenta 12. As co-curator of the 2009 Venice Biennale Chinese Pavilion, Lu presented a thought-provoking exhibition What is to Come, featuring established Chinese contemporary artists.

In his own artistic practice, Lu Hao makes reference to the traditional long hand scroll, “court-style” formats and ink idioms of Chinese painting as well as photorealism, and combines them with postmodern ideas on urban and social memory. Lu's recent works comment on contemporary transformations of Beijing lifestyles and architecture. For the exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum, internationally renowned guest curator Professor Wu Hung, Director, Center for the Art of East Asia, The University of Chicago will work with Lu Hao to present an overview of his artistic practice with sculptures, recent ink paintings and other new works.

The exhibition will be opened by Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts on 28 August 2009, Friday, 6:30 pm, at SAM Glass Hall. Director of Singapore Art Museum, Mr Tan Boon Hui.