Chinese calligraphy and religion in the far reaches of China are investigated in this week’s feature exhibitions. Components of Chinese calligraphy are explored inGuanshan Gathering through the collaborative efforts of the influential scholar, curator, and artist Zheng Shengtian and the highly regarded calligrapher Wang Donglin. Religious shrines of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the Taklamakan Desert are photographed by Lisa Ross in the exhibition Behind the Dunes.

Guanshan Gathering: Works by Zheng Shengtian and Wang Dongling will be on view from January 9 to February 22 at Chambers Fine Art, 522 W. 19th Street, New York, NY.

Zheng Shengtian and Wang Donglin, Guanshan Gathering, 2013, ink on canvas, video, Chambers Fine Art, New York, NY

The basic elements of calligraphy, ink, and material are brought to the fore in a continuation of Zheng Shengtian’s project from the exhibition Word and Meaning: Six Contemporary Chinese Artists at SUNY Buffalo and Ohio University in 2000 and 2001. In videotaping his wife writing Clement Greenberg’s well-known essayModernist Painting on a treated canvas, where the letters gradually shrivel, Zheng demonstrates “the historical progress of Modernist Reductionism that Greenberg believed to be inevitable.” Using similar tactics, the upcoming project Guanshan Gathering at Chambers Fine Art will feature the specially trained Wang Dongling(Chinese, b.1945) writing Zong Bing’s fifth-century classic Introduction to Landscape Painting. At the opening on January 9, Wang will publicly create a piece at the gallery, as well as giving a public calligraphy demonstration at the Met on January 11, in association with the exhibition Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China.

Lisa Ross, Unrevealed, Site 3 (ladder on horizon), 2006, archival pigment prints on cotton paper, Kashya Hildebrand Project Space, London, UK

Lisa Ross: Behind the Dunes (London) will be on view January 9 to 31 at Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, 22 Eastcastle Street, London, UK.

Over the past 10 years, Lisa Ross (American, b.1964) has worked to capturemazar, Sufi shrines and Muslim pilgrimage sites. These devotional sites are marked with various offerings, from cloth tied to branches to remains of sacrificial animals. Ross’s hushed images evoke the prayerful and meditative nature of the sites. Against the timelessness of the desert background, the movement of the wind-lifted textiles and their bright-to-faded hues lend to the vitality of these enduring sites. Ross worked in collaboration with Uyghur folklorist Rahile Dawut and French historian Alexandre Papas. Behind the Dunes marks the first official exhibition in the Kashya Hildebrand Project Space in London. Ross will be present at the opening to sign copies of her new book, featuring the project Living Shrines of Uygur China.

Browse openings by city to see where art can be found in your town!

Berkeley, CA
JeongMee Yoon: The Pink & Blue Project at Rosier Gallery
January 9–April 8, 2014
Berkeley, CA

Helsinki, Finland
Peter Halley: New Paintings at Galerie Forsblom
January 9–February 22, 2014
Lönnrotinkatu 5, Helsinki, Finland

HC Berg: Colour Spaces at Galerie Forsblom
January 9–February 22, 2014
Lönnrotinkatu 5, Helsinki, Finland

New York, NY
between the lines at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
January 9–February 8, 2014
521 W. 21st Street, New York, NY

The Image Gallery: Redux 1959–1963 at Howard Greenberg Gallery
January 9–February 15, 2014
41 E. 57th Street, Suite 1406, New York, NY

Edwin Ruda: The Band Paintings (1969–1972) at Berry Campbell
January 9–February 8, 2014
530 W. 24th Street, New York, NY

Ralf Schmerberg: Greetings from Our Planet at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery
January 9–February 15, 2014
505 W. 24th Street, New York, NY

Saul Fletcher at Anton Kern Gallery
January 9–February 15, 2014
532 W. 20th Street, New York, NY

PAUL GLABICKI: Relativity at Kim Foster Gallery
January 9–February 15, 2014
529 W. 20th Street, New York, NY

Li Hongbo: Tools of Study at Klein Sun Gallery
January 9–March 2, 2014
525 W. 22nd Street, New York, NY

Phoenix, AZ
Jun Kaneko: Black and White
New Works by Jim Waid at Bentley Gallery
January 9–February 9, 2014
215 E. Grant Street, Phoenix, AZ

Zurich Switzerland
MARWAN SAHMARANI: Black Moon (London) at Galerie Kashya Hildebrand
January 9–February 24, 2014
Talstrasse 58, Zurich, Switzerland