The Changsha Exhibition

Currently showing in the Exhibition “Chinese and International Visual Arts Exhibition Henan” Changsha at the Mezzi bookstore complex, curated by Ma Yiying.

 

Participating Artists:

Cang Xin, Li Guangbo, Li Wei , Shen Jingdong, Tie Xin , Wang Guofeng, Wu Di, Xiao Ye, Zhang Zhan, and Zhu Zhigang. From the international side Denise Keele-Bedford(Australia, Girar Bourriau (France), Carlo Bernardini (Italy), Claudio Pieronni (Italy) , Leonida De Filippi (Italy), Leonardo Cevallos (Ecuador) , Monica Lin (USA), Niamh Cunningham (Ireland) Sigurdur Gudmundsson (Iceland) and Stevens Vaughn

I was thrilled to meet several of these impressive artists at the opening recently and this blog will take a brief look at some of the artworks and a line or two about what the artist says. 

Wu Xiaobin, Cang Xin, Zhu Zhigang, Monika Lin, WuDi , Li Wei, Ma YiYing, Tie Xin, Wang Guofeng

 

 

Zhu Zhigang with curator Ma Yiying and Art and Culture director Wu Xiaobin

“We live in a global village” said curator Ma Yiying “This is an intuitive response as we measure and assess space and distance in a world running at high speed. The cultural integration and exchange of ideas and concepts has all been enabled by the invention of the internet.”

 

 

Li Wei, 李暐

Born in Hubei currently working in Beijing, Li Wei’s art practice spans performance, digital media and sculpture. His ‘Li Wei Falls into …’ series create gravity defying situations often using mirrors, metal wires , scaffolding and acrobatics. Mirrors feature prominently in his work , where it has the symbolic meaning as an indicator of truth.

Some of his Fall art works are showing at the Changsha exhibition but also this Buddhist mirrorscape

 

The artist says :

“The body , all manner of things and the imagination, the world is represented by these three things together …. the freedom and harmony of this trinity.”

 

 

Tie Xin ,铁心

Tie Xin merges abstract elements with social existence and deals with the acknowledgment of excessive consumption and vanishing resources. Piles of wasted bulbs in all shapes, sizes and colour reveal the surface aftermath of our glitzy existence and super consumption and contradictions.

The artist says :

 

“You can’t just separate visual art into Chinese and foreign sections as it functions as one of the best means of communication. In dealing with what is good visual art, there needs to be a wide-ranging renewal and promotion of Chinese understanding of contemporary visual art.”

 

 

 

 

Xiao Ye, 萧也

 

Abstract artist Xiao Ye’s practice of the abstract is a spiritual manifestion . . Currently working in Changsha, he majored in ornamental sculpture at the academy of Arts and Design at Tsinghua University . There are two very different works shown side by side : an abstract ink wash abstract and a large digital print both monochromatic and focused on the contradictions of surface and internal forces.

 

 

 

 

The artist says:

“Infiltrating rice paper and water in Chinese spiritual philosophy means to infiltrate ink and rice paper so that the three(water , ink and paper)  are integrated with each other . The endless changes in the collision and mutual attraction deduce internal and external eternity”

 

 

Zhang Zhan,张展

Zhang Zhang currently works between Rome and Wuhan and has organized many international and local art exhibitions. He studied at China Central Academy of Fine Art Oil Painting. He is the founder of Chushang art space.

 

 

 

The artist says: 

“All waste products emit their natural beauty and even though it might be incomprehensible a special quality exists amidst this refuse.”

 

 

 

 

Zhu Zhigang,、朱志刚

Zhu Zhigangs cool shades of grey purple and blue are arranged in a huge bank leaving a calming surface of muted geometric grids. It would be hard not to see them as indecipherable pixelated compositions in our contemporary age , a conversation between a more traditional media of brush and paint and digital media.

 

 

The artist says :

“The theme of the square grid is appropriated from the mosaic pattern in film and television images such as when the publisher protects the privacy of individuals, the original image of the person is intervened with and replaced with a mosaic” said abstract painter Zhu Zhigang. “However the other side to this is people want to see the real image behind the mosaic. In the various events we confront with in real life many truths are deliberately hidden. That’s probably what I’m trying to do with this stuff.”

Leonardo Cevallos (Ecuador)路易

Leonardo Cevallos came to China in 1995 and studied Lithography and later Chinese Woodcut at the Central Academy of Fine Arts Beijing where he received a Masters degree.

The artist says: 

“Global Military conflict not only has devastating effects on individual people but has a multitude of hidden opaque results such as economic, geopolitical, cultural and environmental interventions. Such conflicts are more often presented to a public with a thesis of self-defense against a nuclear war or such threat that would inevitably lead to regional destruction. These stories have led to disastrous conflicts and war.”However environmental damage is our lasting legacy more so than any other. Global business and governments continue to facilitate the incessant use of fossil fuels without regulation. They ignore or worse still claim false the damage we cause our planet .They contribute fiscal and political power to interfere with the prevention of global warming measures. Placing short term economic gain above what we leave behind as legacy to our children, the result of this is The Disloyal Man where no one gains .

 

Monica Lin (USA),

Monica Lin’s work focuses on the social constructs within society which have ulterior functions . She questions our current notions of beauty, age, material value, commodity and desire.

The fairy tale and its definition of beauty and the myth of its social necessity produce stereo typical images of impossible physical and behavioural standards serving to reinforce dominant culture constructs. 

The artist says

Philosopher’s Wall interrogates these cultural constructs and their lasting effects through the juxtaposition of materials, animal/human forms, labor and economics, and aspects of Beauty. Through the use of fairytales in marketing, capitalist interests have created a cycle of consumerism, resulting in prescribed behaviors, social systems, hierarchies and ultimately both psychological and ecological pollution.  This glowing, gilded wall, with its 1000 inset gilded walnut shells peopled with plastic and clay, uses the fairy tale motif to situate questions about how  distance creates relational perception and preconceived notions of artistic value. From a distance the wall shimmers and glows, beckons and firmly establishes itself in the realm of the valued and desired, the realm of a prescribed Beauty. Upon closer inspection, however, the wall deconstructs itself as wearing lowly materials and disturbing figures emerge.

 

Wang GuoFeng王国锋

Wang Guo Feng born in Liaoning and working in Beijing, the recipient of national and international photographic awards . His Pixel series are huge blocks of unreadable colour until the viewer decides to walk away and turn around for a quick glance to obtain a hint of an image. Critic Gu Zheng when writing on the artist suggested the Pixel as a unit of history where pixel controlled precision determines the truth of history.

The artist says :

Photos are pixelated and distributed to the public via the Internet in the digital age. I select these media photos and enlarge them to the extreme to make the “pixel”, the fundamental picture elements, to be visualized. The details and the implications of the original photo are lost and transformed to a pure visual image of colorful square. The original myth is subverted and reconstructed.

 

 

 

Cang Xin

Performance artist Cang Xin (Manchu) currently works in Beijing. As a new shaman artist he uses a mixture of oriental mysticism and northern romanticism making the body a symbol of art working on discrepancies in social strata, space, the real and the performed. The work showing in Changsha shows the artist standing side by side a person of whose clothes he is wearing. The power of vulnerability is striking here as the viewers initial focus and empathy is directed to the subject who wearing only undergarments. The artist wears another persons working clothes disguising himself in the Others identity raising questions on identity and ‘the Other’ but also other issues of power and imbalance.

 

The artist says:

The so called Other means a different way of life such as working in a variety of industries. The work emphasizes that others are different from me and cannot be replaced. It is only during this brief roleplay that the Other only overlaps with oneself. Although the other person has taken off his or her work clothes, the exposed body does not alter the innate identity and so the intention is to have a conversation about a virtual self and a real Other .

 

 

 

 

Denise Keele Bedford (Australia) 德妮丝

Denise Keele Bedford works between Melbourne and Beijing. She curates the annual Nv YiShu female art series collaborative project between Australia and China. Often working in multiples to form a single artwork her interests also lie in the mark making of writing and the evoloution and imagery of Chinese Characters.

 

The artist says:

 

The bark on Australian Eucalyptus Gum trees is a micro world of texture, and when closely examined, transferred into a two dimensional image it becomes a macro view of the Australian outback river systems.

Australian Flow is a series of works using watercolour and Chinese ink on paper.

 

 

Wu Di 吴迪

 

Previously a business executive Wu Di began to ask questions about what constitutes harm to the human body cooperating with professional research organizations. The environmental artist integrates current social issues with performance, photography and video art. When I met him at the Changsha exhibition he had just returned from filming one of the surviving rainforests in Yunnan. In 2012 he worked on a project relating to the Qiantang ( Linjiang, Xiaoshan, Hangzhou ) River pollution incident with Greenpeace highlighting global fashion brands  and the use of highly toxic dyes. He is director of the Kejia Contemporary Art Center.

 

What the artist says:

‘I first began to use smog as a theme for artworks in 2011. I want to make a solid description of the current situation, how it affects peoples lives and society. Currently art can only exist in a narrow space, artists will give their interpretation but when a work is completed, different people will add to the understanding of the work.’

 

 

 

 

 

Shen Jingdong

After graduating in printmaking in the art department of from Nanjing University of the Arts Shen Jingdong worked on stage art in the political department of Nanjing military region from 1991 to 2009 . Although unable to attend the Changsha exhibition I met him in Beijing recently at a reception for his Heros installation at the Opposite House in Sanlitun. The work displayed in Changsha refers to an unexpressive face of varying characters in different situations , including some references Tintin-like characters . 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Niamh Cunningham (Ireland)瑞莲

Working in Beijing for over seven years, actively engaged in several collaborative art projects as artist curator on projects such as Intimate Transgressions  and Irish Wave.  She recently completed a sculpture for a public art project in Wudi Shandong and has work permanently displayed at the Land Art Museum at DiQiuCun ecolological park.

 

 

The artist says :

The work is a tribute to the anti War Poet Ingeborg Bachman who spent her life’s work reflecting on the hidden forces of violence and oppression in society. After the annexation of Austria Bachmann saw the Nazi troops march through her town when she was 12 years old .

The portrait is based on a photograph of the poet as a young girl (by all appearances of 10-12 year old) rowing a boat. The distortions of the imagery are intended to reflect some of the hidden forces of violence and oppression in society as she rows against the tide.

 

 

 

The exhibition continues till January 26th  . 

 

Sponsored by Better Life

Undertaken by Ruyi Culture and Meixi Academy

Presented by Zhang Haixia

Curated by Ma Yi Ying

Artistic Director Wu Xiaobin

Venue : L3 , Meixi Academy, Better Life Meixi Land, No 1099, Fenglin No 3 Road Changsha , Hunan.

Niamh Cunningham- Bio 。。。个人简介-倪芙瑞莲
'The Pattern that Connects' is part of the Common Threads project showing at EPIC Museum Irish Emigration Museum, Dublin Feb 1- 14th


Currently Showing Oct 2022: The Sasse Museum of Art , Pomona, CA, in the US opened a photography exhibition last weekend showing a process print (23.01.2018) from my mixed media Sucrose Series "Ginkgo Palace", Niamh Cunningham 2018
The original physical sucrose plate and accompanying print on aluminium was collected at Art Beijing 2021
Promoting Connectivity through Creative Industries Sept 2022 at Yindi Art Museum, hosted by Opportunity Lab
Hair Skull recently exhibited (Oct 1st-7th 2022) at Art Plus Shanghai , the group exhibition"Linear" is curated by Chang Feng

For more information on the Hair Skull and working with DNA as an art material click HERE

Ann Derwin, Ambassador to Ireland in China with gallerist 庞春慧Peng Chun Hui at For 觅 gallery , August 2022
Currently showing - Moon Covenant
证在展出-月亮之约

Artist talk on gathering peoples tree stories before Spitoon Book Club discussion on Pulitzer prize winning novel " The Overstory" by Richard Powers
Online Catalogue launched Jan 2022 , showing Sucrose Series alongside Microbe Art
Recently exhibited in Xishuangbanna State Art Museum Dec 2021
Canal Bank Walk , Yuan Dadu Culural Relics Park Beijing
Grand Canal artist Residency and Exhibition

Her Name Penninsula Art Museum Weihai, Shandong 16 July- 22 Oct 2021

Linear….. showing at LangKong Art Museum (朗空美术馆) 07.7-30.7.21
Suzhou Couples Retreat Gardens
The Second Step – mini solo of 18 portraits in HouHai from 6.6 tp 8.8 2021
Astro World Exit Tourism – Group exhibition June 2021
Recently ART Beijing 2021 Booth B28 Irish Contemporary Art
Early stage – Sculpture project HongFangzi ShaWan Sichuan
Current Events 正在展出

即将展出:

2022 9月   谷山村中国农民丰收节暨大地艺术节

正在展出:

2022 9月   传粉者:北京西山鼓山乡村公园的再生材料雕塑

最新动态:

 

2022 6-8“月亮之约” For觅画廊,通州,北京

2022 1 来自爱尔兰的艺术家 ,线上展览 在线链接

2022 1 清华大学精准医学研究院, EBM 中心

202112“生命之律动”,西双版纳州美术馆,景洪

202112“线性”,竞衡艺术空间,上海

202110-11“中国抽象艺术”,江苏泰州

202110“相遇大运河”,通州新光大中心

20217 “线性”,798朗空美术馆,北京

20217“她的名字——存在”,半岛美术馆,威海

20216“润物细无声·艺术与遗产新解构”,苏州耦园 

2021610“万物有灵——多样之美” 艺术展与企业社会责任国际论坛,北京

20216“第二步”(小型个人展),龙头井胡同JoyBeans Space,北京

20216“天体世界:出逃旅行” 蓝色港湾KUN美术馆,北京

2021年3月4月 ART Beijing 2021

202012 艺术推动可持续未来” 中国企业社会责任国际学术研讨会, 北京泰富酒店

20209月“同生·由此及彼”,山东济宁市泗水等闲谷艺术粮仓美术馆 

20207  “沉默的爆破”,无锡外滩美术馆,江苏无锡, 7月11日至31日

2019年11月”中国 爱尔兰  MUSEu&m , 上海

*2019年11月装置中国—红房子首届国际户外装置创作营在乐山沙湾红房子开营 …开始阶段

*2019年8月*Gobi Heaven- August 戈壁。天堂-八月

*2019年7月”1919″ 爱尔兰  Sligo -Hamilton Gallery  

*2019年5月“胜日寻芳“ 山东济宁市泗水等闲谷艺术粮仓美术馆

2019年5月-16 爱尔兰大使馆布卢姆日的展览

20195-6  《一张棉花纸》   在宋庄东区玖层美术馆展出

*2019年4月-5月在匈牙利首都布达佩斯

*2019年4月”奥德赛——回归”群展2019年4月13日在东岳美术馆开幕。

*2018年11月-12月“地图与疆域”国际艺术邀请展 北京吉利学院

*2018年11月-12月“纸上·至上”展览,韩国光州市立美术馆北京创作中心

*2018, 10月中欧国当代艺术全球巡展·上海

2018, 9月-10月“纸上·至上”展览,沈阳市拓•空间,

2018, 6月-11月诗人叶芝日,爱尔兰,斯莱戈(SLIGO),汉密尔顿艺术画廊

*2018年8月 淮阴艺术馆提名展,淮安市

*2018, 8月 “纸上·至上”展览, 鄂尔多斯,

*2018 , 6月30日 济南“国际抽象艺术展”

*2018 , 6月17 日 纸上•至上2018 在青岛,

*2018 , 5月20 日存在-国际女性艺术展,湖南长沙,

*2018 , 4月21 日延缓的时间,4月21日-29日,红门画廊,798艺术区

*2018 , 4月20 日 挖掘,,和画廊,来鹏高尔夫俱乐部

*2018年4月-12日 挖掘, , 展览,悦美术馆,北京798艺术区

*2018年2月-3月深圳观澜版画艺术区,5个星期驻地项目

*2018年1月28日-3月3日,《红&果》,流浪美术馆融空间,新年主题艺术展,北京中关村融科资讯中心

*2017年12月,中外视觉艺术湖南展,湖南长沙梅溪新天地梅溪书院.

*2017年12月末至2018年1月末, 《时间之外》主题艺术展, 北京中关村融科资讯中心

*2017年12月, 形质与叙事, 形质与叙事, 东岳美术馆

 *2017年12月,广州新造当代艺术中心,纸上·至上 纸艺作品群展.

Upcoming Exhibitions:

* Gushan Rural Village Park Harvest  Autumn 2022

Current Exhibition

 

Recent  exhibitions:

2022 Moon Covenant Forgallery , Grasse Town , Beijing June- August

2022 Artists from Ireland (online) Sasse Museum of Art Pomona, CA, USA (catalogue link)

2022 Peoples’ Portraits EBM Centre, Tsinghua Uni Intelligent HealthCare, BJ

2021 Rhythm of Life Xishuangbanna Art Museum, Jinghong, Dec

2021 Linear Jingheng Art centre, Jinshan, Shanghai Dec

2021 Abstract China, Taizhou, Jiangsu Oct-Nov

2021 Meet the Grand Canal Xinguanda Centre Tongzhou, Oct

2021 Linear Langkong Art Museum 798, Beijing July

2021 Her Name – Existence Peninsula Art Museum, Weihai, July

2021 Silent and Soft -New Interpretations Suzhou classical Gardens June

2021 All things Bright CSR symposium Shangrila Hotel, Beijing June 10th

2021 The Second Step (mini solo) Joy Beans Space, Jiu Longtou hutong, June

* AstroWorld Kun Art Museum June 5 2021

*Portraits (solo) Joybeans  Hou  Hai 6.6-8.8

*River things  Suzhou Zhenyuan garden UNESCO world Heritage Training and Research centre June 12 th

*Art Beijing  2021 Booth B28  Garden of Friendship

*“Art promotes a Sustainable Future” China CSR international symposium Dec 2020.

*Silent Explosion, Wuxi Bund Art Centre, Jiangsu,  July 11-31 2020

* Sculpture project in HongFangzu , Shawan, Sichuan , begining phase Nov 2019

Current Exhibition

*China Ireland exhibition at MUSEU&m, near the Bund , Shanghai, Nov 29th 2019

* Sculpture project in HongFangzu , Shawan, Sichuan , begining phase Nov 2019

*1919 – Group Exhibition (Hamilton Gallery) in New York, Irish Consulate

*1919 – Group Exhibition Hamilton Gallery , Sligo , Ireland July – September

*Gobi Heaven Art Festival , Inner Mongolia , August 2019

*A piece of Cotton Paper  9th floor gallery Songzhuang June 15th

*”Winning the Day ‘ Granary Art Centre,  SiShui , Shandong, May – June 2019

*Beyond the form of Art , Wick Art Centre , Budapest, Hungary may 2019

*Odyssey The Return ; group exhibition at Dong Yue Art Museum, Beijing  in April

Map and Territory Art IRRCA at Beijing Geely College Nov 20- Dec 20 2018

*Thousands of Sprouts, an experimental online exhibition – by Elizabeth Ross  Nov 2018

* On Paper Supreme, Gwangju Art Museum Beijing Creative Centre Songzhuang Nov- Dec 2018

*China Europe Internaitional Contemporary Art Global Tour Shanghai Oct 2018

*An Irish Airman foresees his Death – Hamilton Gallery Sligo, Ireland June – Nov 2018

*On Paper Supreme, Extension Space, Shenyang, Liaoning,  Sept 16th – Oct 21st  2018

*Artist Nomination Exhibition, Huaiyin art gallery, Huai ‘an shi, Jiangsu, July-Aug 2018

*On Paper Supreme, Ordos Culture and Art Centre , Inner Mongolia , Aug 17th – Sept 10th  2018

*International Abstract Art , ChungChuen College, Jinan, July 2018

* On Paper Supreme, QingDao , Tiantai Art Centre, June 2018

* Existence , International Feminist Art Exhibition,  Mezzi Bookstore Art Space , Changsha

* Excavations 20 April-4th June  He Gallery, Golf Club.

*’Mortgaged Time’ 21st- 29th April at Red Gate Gallery , 798 Beijing  April 21st

*’Excavations’ 12-18th Enjoy Museum 798,  Beijing   preview 5 pm 12th April

* 5 week residency at Guanlan Printmaking base , Shenzhen (Feb-March 2018)

*Lunar New Year theme exhibition “Red Fruit” showing at Raycom IT centre, Zhongguancun,  28th Jan continues to March 3rd, organised by RoveArt , supporting the Female Protection Fund.

*Chinese & Foreign Visual Arts Hunan,  at the Meixi Academy Book Complex, Changsha Dec 26th to Jan 26th 2018.

* ‘Beyond Time’  Raycom IT Centre, Zhongguangcun, Beijing Dec – Jan 27th  2018

*”Qualitative Phase and The Narrative” Beijing Film Academy Triennial Exhibition at Dong Yue Art Museum, Beijing, curated by Li Zhen till Dec 18th 2017…………………………………………….

 

由此及彼——中(国)爱(尔兰)女艺术家邀请展 The Pattern That Connects Sept 2020
Wuxi Bund Art Centre “Silent Explosion”
My interview with Today Art Museum and Today Art Media on the COVID era

Recent Interview , click on above image April 2020

Link to newspaper coverage -Carlow Nationalist (click on image)

In Her Eyes, F&E 100x100cm acrylic on canvas, 倪芙瑞莲Niamh Cunningham 2019

Silent Explosion
‘China-Ireland’ exhibition Shanghai Nov 29th 2019

China Ireland exhibition at MUSEu&m, Shanghai , opening Nov 29th

‘Whirls in the Old’ in New York at the exhibition ‘1919’

1919-Whirls in the Old Terezin acrylic on canvas 30x30cm Niamh Cunningham 2019

Gobi Heaven Art Festival August 2019

Participating in the International Artists program for this exciting event in the Gobi Dessert

Jul.Aug 2019 Group Exhibition , Hamilton Gallery , Sligo, Ireland and also Sept 2019 at the Irish Consulate Offices , Park Ave NYC
Granary Art exhibition SiShui Shandong June 2019

Granary Art Exhibition SiSHui , Shangdong June 2019 click on image

Swim Duck Video …30 sec clip of original work recently shown at Bloomsday event at Embassy of Ireland Niamh Cunningham 2019
clip from Swim Duck video Niamh Cunningham 2019

Clip from 'Swim Duck' Video by Niamh Cunningham 2019

Group exhibition in Sishui, Shangdong 正在展出

Granary Art Museum , Sishui, Jining , Shandong

April /May 2019 in Budapest 近期展出匈牙利

Currently showing in Budapest Aprli- May 2019

Wandering Rocks series of portraits 游岩系列
Web Of Fabulous Grass – Sucrose Series Click on image for Artist Profile English &简体中文
Talk on James Joyce at Bookworm with prof Fu Hao 乔伊斯座谈会
Aritst Talk on James Joyce at Beijing Bookworm

Talk on James Joyce at Bookwork Beijing April 2019

Map and Territory project Nov -Dec 2018 at Beijing Geely University
Map and Territory

Map and Territory

Artist talk at Beijing Geely College Dec 11th 2018
-.On Paper Supreme made its final exhibition for 2018 in Beijing Songzhuang opening Nov 16th
Group exhibition Hamilton Gallery, Sligo
Hamilton Gallery Sligo - Lonely Impulse 2

A response to WB Yeats poem 'An Irish Airman Foresees his Death'

Group show Oct 27th Shanghai Bund 27 The House of Roosevelt House , the Bund Shanghai
With curator Guo Zhen at the opening of Existence in Changsha , exhibition continues till end of July 2018

和策展人郭桢在开幕式《存在》

Recent ‘At your Leisure’ Summer exhibition Jiangsu “悠游“——淮阴艺术馆
exhibited in Jinan curated by Ma Yi Ying
简体中文Artist Interview & Profile for the Art Project ‘Existence’
Group exhibition at Red Gate in April 2018 focussing on antiwar poet Ingeborg Bachmann
Niamh Cunningham 'Bachmann Girl' 2017

Artwork for poster is 'Bachmann Girl' 100x100cm Acrylic on Canvas by Niamh Cunningham 2017

Recent Posts
Excavations showing at Enjoy Museum 798 April 2018

Excavations , a cross collaborative exhibition showing contemporary art by Chinese and Irish artists , showing in Enjoy Museum, 798 , 2018.4.12

Very honoured to have Irish Ambassador Eoin O’ Leary visit Chinese New Year exhibition “Red & Fruit”

Irish Ambassador Eoin O'Leary with subway paintings at Raycom Centre exhibition Feb 2018

The Grand Canal (Hangzhou to Beijing) artist residency(August 2021) and exhibition (Oct 2021)

RTE interview on preparing for upcoming group exhibition 2 min clip

Currently showing as part of the Common Threads project, at EPIC Irish Emigration Museum , Dublin

Feb 1 -14th , 2023