This issue centers around the idea of “alternative spaces”–an ambiguous zone somewhere between museum and gallery–in the art landscape of recent years. Looking at five examples of historically important spaces and five more of currently active ones throughout greater China, we hope to offer a mapping of the more creative end of institutional practice. Elsewhere in the feature well, a major investigative piece by Guo Juan looks at the state of yancai (literally: “mineral color”) painting in China, and critics offer extended commentary on filmmaker Huang Weikai, video artist Chen Xiaoyun, and the artist-activist collective behind Wuhan’s “East Lake Project.” A portfolio drawn from Lucy Raven’s 2009 photographic animation China Town as well as a fashion shoot set in an installation of Italian design by Tim Yip fill out the middle section. Down bottom, you’ll find takes on the biennials in Taipei and Shanghai among 19 exhibition reviews, and up top a look at Zhong Ming’s iconic painting Sartre–He is Himself as well as Paul Gladston’s meditation on Ai Weiwei’s Turbine Hall commission at the Tate Modern.

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