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Vivienne Westwood and New World heir Adrian Cheng collaborate in Shanghai exhibition

A Vivienne Westwood exhibition in Shanghai in conjunction with the K11 Art Foundation looks at the designer’s political and environmental activism and starts a dialogue with young Chinese artists

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A display from the Vivienne Westwood exhibition “Get A Life!” at the K11 Art Foundation in Shanghai.

Jing is a contributor to the Post.

Published: 6:33pm, 23 Jan 2017Updated: 6:33pm, 23 Jan 2017

“Get a Life” exclaim posters and billboards on the global debut of a Vivienne Westwood K11 exhibition in dialogue with Chinese contemporary artists. The expansive exhibition, curated by Alex Krenn from the Westwood brand, talks about the fashion and the political and environmental activism that has come to define the British designer’s work.

“Vivienne has been to China several times before,” says Krenn, “she especially likes the cultural heritage and arts, the paintings and calligraphy.”

Westwood and her husband Andreas Kronthaler.

In this exhibition, Westwood has put a heavy focus on projects (such as her Save the Arctic campaign with Greenpeace) which promote sustainable living and warn against overconsumption (her general ethos is to buy less, but buy lasting quality). These environmental issues are global, but seem much more prescient in China, which is so often plagued with headline grabbing ecological problems.

Nathan Zhou’s A Clown without a Past at the Monument of the Peach Blossom Valley exhibition.

It’s the first time the brand has done such an exhibition outside Britain, testament to the importance of the Chinese market, as well as the sway of Adrian Cheng, founder of K11 Art Foundation and the K11 malls.