A duo exhibition with Zhang Zhaohui and Niamh Cunningham

with Zhang Zhaohui, David Brubaker , Brian Wallace and Niamh Cunningham 

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We had a special opening on November 2 at the renowned The Red Gate Gallery. I met modern ink artist Zhang Zhaohui a few years ago at the opening of a group exhibition we were both participating in, it was a lovely encounter as I had known his work for nearly 10 years before but had never met him in person.  During Summer 2024 I noticed he recently made work relating to forests and we decided to do a show together.

After the Floor talk with each of the artists followed by a talk by art scholar and writer David Brubaker.

It was great to see all kinds of people ,  art academics and forestry reseachers, educators and sustainability NGO’s,  creatives and students all milling around together.   

Zhang’s large scale calligraphy word play 森林  Tree Woods  Forest is part of the series of work he installed in a woods in Massachusetts this Summer.

Alongside his other ink work which almost looks snowy he also included some of his male female cut out mirror photography called “Stay Together”.

 

These monochromes were in contrast to the saturated colours of my ‘Canal Bank Walk’ made during the Tongzhou Canal Residency an area of canal along the Yuan Dadu relics park .

Two of the Xishuangbanna Residency Tree paintings  （Banna Vortex and Electric Fronds） and one of the Chengdu Residency paintings （Tall）contrasted my own monochrome original Sucrose series alongside some process prints.

I also had 3 Tree Stories on Video screened from Chengdu. 

 

A special thanks to Brian Wallace owner of  The Red Gate Gallery , to Han and Zhou at the gallery , and also to the talented Fay Li who translated beautifully  for both Saturday and Sunday Floor Talks and to David Brubaker for his valuable talk at the opening giving some new perspectives on art and our ecological emergency . 

Media Links – 1 

Media Link – 2 China Daily coverage