Matthew Barney's Virgins is on show at Redoubt at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. [Photo/Courtesy of Matthew Barney and Gladstone Gallery]

Matthew Barney: Redoubt

A footballer, a model, a medical student, a director, a film festival judge. It's no easy task to describe Matthew Barney, a 52-year-old American contemporary artist of expansive interests and accomplishments.

Acclaimed as the most important artist of his generation, Barney has recently staged his first solo exhibition Redoubt in China, since his seminal and breakthrough Cremaster Cycle showcased at Art in America: 300 Years of Innovation hosted by the National Art Gallery in 2007.

Redoubt, a major new body of work created between 2016 and 2019, features five monumental sculptures and more than 50 engravings and electroplated plates. Another highlight of the artist's Beijing show is an eponymous feature-length film that traces a wolf hunt in Idaho's snowy Sawtooth Mountain range.

The film loosely adapts the Roman tale of Diana, goddess of the hunt and Actaeon, a hunter who infuriates Diana after seeing her bathing and is turned into a stag. Like most of Barney's previous films, Redoubt contains no dialogue while the characters communicate through intriguing choreography that echoes and heralds their encounter with wildlife.

The exhibition runs until Jan 12.

If you go: 10:00-19:00, Monday to Sunday. Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, 798 Art Zone, No 4 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang district. 8610-5780-0200北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路2号798艺术区 UCCA尤伦斯当代艺术中心