2020
Li Jin: To Live [It Up] exhibition highlights
SMH Column featuring Li Jin
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Three of the best: Art to see in Sydney now
5 Nov 2020 by John McDonald Li Jin: To Live (It Up), at Vermilion, is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Sydney since 2013, when he showed with the late Ray Hughes. The title borrows from Yu Hua’s famous novel which was made into a 1994 movie by Zhang Yimou. It presents an epic sweep of modern Chinese history, which overlaps with much of Li Jin’s life. These years, so crushing for many, were empowering for Li Jin. A hedonist in the best sense, he sidesteps the political agonies of modern China and draws sustenance from the positive energies around him. His works brim with wit and self-deprecating humour, celebrating those timeless subjects: food and sex. Read more on SMH online, or vist John McDonald's website |
Li Jin: To Live [It Up] featured by Xinhua News
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Chinese artist Li Jin's new Sydney show draws on universal joys of life.
Drunken monks, delectable foods, flirtatious acts and a quirky cast of characters all feature in the works of Chinese artist Li Jin, which went on display in Sydney in a landmark solo exhibition beginning Thursday afternoon. Titled, To Live [It Up], the exhibition features both new and old works by Li, who at 62 says the name is an apt description of his paintings. "My artistic creation has actually been about this theme for a couple of years but I didn't realize it," Li told Xinhua via video chat from his Beijing studio. With the pressures of COVID-19 on everyday life this year, Li said that the pandemic had naturally crept into his work, however he explained he wanted to overcome some of the tension by injecting humour and joie de vivre as well. Read the full story: www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-11/06/c_139495812.htm?bsh_bid=5563019235 |
Media interviewing Li Jin from his Beijing studio, 5 Nov 2020.
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Li Jin: To Live [It Up] featured in TimeOut - The best art exhibitions in Sydney this month
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Time Out says
Check out this exciting solo show by a celebrate Chinese artist whose work hangs in the Met Walsh Bay’s independent, bilingual Vermilion Art gallery, tucked in beside the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge, marks its very first solo show with a major coup, welcoming Chinese artist Li Jin, whose works were championed by late, great Sydney art dealer Ray Hughes and have been acquired by the likes of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. To Live [It Up] delivers a new twist on traditional Chinese ink paintings, bringing a hedonistic sense of humour to play. The show, which runs from November 5 to December 12, has been curated by influential art critic John McDonald. It features almost 40 fun works, with Jin delivering a colourful line-up of quirky characters, often devouring food. The collection includes two large-scale works on paper and one breath-taking scroll. There are Australian influences too, including a perky kangaroo accompanied by beach babes in club kink-influenced swimwear, as well as a of animal-human hybrid creations that intrigue. A fabulous take on food hung out to dry, from sausages to chook to chillies, has us salivating. To read the full story on TimeOut, please click the link below: https://www.timeout.com/sydney/art/to-live-it-up |
Li Jin: To Live [It Up], a documentary presented by Vermilion Art
AFR features Li Jin
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China's Li Jin celebrates food, life and sex in new exhibition
Li Jin, who was born in Tianjin, China, in 1958, is a contemporary ink master whose works celebrate all aspects of everyday life. He is best known for his witty and lush depictions of sensory pleasures. The exhibition features a broad range of the artist's latest work, including a suite of 20 small, idiosyncratic ink and colours; eight ink sketches incorporating his distinctive calligraphy; two painted fans; five semi-abstract ink pieces; two large scale works and one magnificent scroll painting. The show has been curated by John McDonald, AFR Weekend's film writer and The Sydney Morning Herald's art critic. McDonald has a longstanding interest in Chinese art and has written about Li Jin on many occasions. In 2006 he characterised the artist’s work as “a continual celebration of the pleasures of life”. In 2013 he described it as “irreverent and cheerfully vulgar – a riotous celebration of food, drink and sex, when everyone else was obsessed with politics”. There may be a touch of melancholy, a growing sense of the absurd, in Li Jin’s latest creations, but they still exude the same roaring vitality. To Live [It Up] reveals a determined philosophy of life: having come through the hard times, we should make the most of the good times. To read the full story on AFR website, please click here. |
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Lisa Tomasetti is featured in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald
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On 23rd September, artists Lisa Tomasetti is featured in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Catherine Lambert wrote a story about Lisa's photography,"When ballet hit the streets: the stories behind stunning tour photos".
Read the story online here if you are interested: www.theage.com.au/culture/dance/when-ballet-hit-the-streets-the-stories-behind-stunning-tour-photos-20200923-p55yc8.html Congratulation to Lisa! |
Xiao Lu's "15 Gunshots... from 1989 to 2003" collected by AGNSW
Xiao Lu's major work "15 Gunshots... From 1989 to 2003" has been added to the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Yin Cao, curator of Chinese Art has written a story about this artwork. The story is published in the Gallery's <Look> magazine, on pp. 61-62. Congratulations to Xiao Lu!
Image courtesy of AGNSW.
WBAC Concierge and Media Famil event
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We are pleased to be part of this year's Walsh Bay Arts and Commerce Concierge and Media Famil event, happened on 24th Jun 2020. More than 15 representatives from Sydney's most established 5-star hotels and media outlet visited the gallery, including the editor from Sunday Telegraph, concierge managers from Four Seasons, Fullerton Hotel, Intercontinental, The Hilton, The Park Hyatt, Pier One Sydney Harbour, QT Sydney, Shangri-La, Sofitel and West Hotel. |
THE FORGOTTEN online book launch featuring Fang Lijun's work as book cover
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The online book launch took place at 11am Friday 24th April. His Excellency the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd), Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia officially launches THE FORGOTTEN, the untold story of the Chinese Labour Corps and the Chinese Anzacs in the Great War “virtually” via skype from Government House, Canberra. The event commences with Kamahl performing both verses of the Australian National Anthem and the event also feature remarks from author and historian Dr. Will Davies as well as businessman Albert Wong who has made contributions to the book. THE FORGOTTEN book cover credit: Fang Lijun, '2016', 2016, woodblock print on silk. View the recording here: https://video.ibm.com/channel/eWyv5nLmKH9 |
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Love, Unmasked auction and exhibition soft opening
A Rich Life: Love, Unmasked – A COVID-19 Art Auction
by Emma-Kate Wilson
Over the first weekend in April, a charity art auction and online exhibition closed it’s bidding to support a COVID-19 emergency response by Bridging Hope Charity Foundation and Vermillion Art gallery in Sydney. The sales of the artwork are dedicated to helping UNICEF lessen the global impact of the epidemic, focusing on reducing human transmission and ensuring children get access to essential services.
“Very early on of the epidemic, I saw some artists posted their works on social media in response,” gallery director, Dr Yeqin Zuo shares. “I talked to my friend Anke Timm, the Executive Director of BHCF which has been a big supporter for art and mental health — together we invited 23 Chinese and Australian artists and all of them said yes!”
The auction message hones into a lot of the artists’ practice, who examine cross-cultural care efforts. It also reveals the social responsibility of the art industry. For Zuo, this hits home. “My professional background is public health medicine, and I was involved in several major infectious disease outbreaks, although never so big,” she shares. “It can affect anyone but people with less access to resources suffer the most.”
The auction chose to donate the funds to UNICEF as they were the first international agency went into rural China when Zuo was a young doctor in the early 1990s. “It made a significant impact on women and children’s health,” Zuo continues. “We have worked closely with Yutong Ding from UNICEF Australia on this initiative.”
“I think all artists should share social responsibilities. This is not the first time I support charity events. I started years ago (e.g. I donated artwork amid Wenchuan Earthquake),” contributing artist Guan Wei shares. “In this way, I hope to contribute a little bit to the wellbeing of the whole society.”
Tianjin-based artist Li Jin saw his work, Spring 2020, sell for $79,000, and directly relates to his experience in China facing the pandemic. “I try to be positive,” he adds. “In this particular work, the closeness of the family and the flowers all represent hope. I’ve reached my purpose if viewers can feel the warmth from the image.” Li’s brush-and-ink traditional artwork contrast the depicted mundane and everyday realities of life in lockdown, the artwork becomes alive with the colours of spring — nothing can stop the flowers opening.
Both artists believe art should play a decisive role during the crisis. “The power of artists may be messenger, but art can always encourage, inspire and enlighten people,” Guan adds. “I feel the role is to contribute to the society as a whole.” The connection and compassion between countries is essential for fighting the virus, maximising skills, vaccine efforts, and knowledge.
Read more: https://arichlife.com.au/love-unmasked-a-covid-19-art-auction/
Over the first weekend in April, a charity art auction and online exhibition closed it’s bidding to support a COVID-19 emergency response by Bridging Hope Charity Foundation and Vermillion Art gallery in Sydney. The sales of the artwork are dedicated to helping UNICEF lessen the global impact of the epidemic, focusing on reducing human transmission and ensuring children get access to essential services.
“Very early on of the epidemic, I saw some artists posted their works on social media in response,” gallery director, Dr Yeqin Zuo shares. “I talked to my friend Anke Timm, the Executive Director of BHCF which has been a big supporter for art and mental health — together we invited 23 Chinese and Australian artists and all of them said yes!”
The auction message hones into a lot of the artists’ practice, who examine cross-cultural care efforts. It also reveals the social responsibility of the art industry. For Zuo, this hits home. “My professional background is public health medicine, and I was involved in several major infectious disease outbreaks, although never so big,” she shares. “It can affect anyone but people with less access to resources suffer the most.”
The auction chose to donate the funds to UNICEF as they were the first international agency went into rural China when Zuo was a young doctor in the early 1990s. “It made a significant impact on women and children’s health,” Zuo continues. “We have worked closely with Yutong Ding from UNICEF Australia on this initiative.”
“I think all artists should share social responsibilities. This is not the first time I support charity events. I started years ago (e.g. I donated artwork amid Wenchuan Earthquake),” contributing artist Guan Wei shares. “In this way, I hope to contribute a little bit to the wellbeing of the whole society.”
Tianjin-based artist Li Jin saw his work, Spring 2020, sell for $79,000, and directly relates to his experience in China facing the pandemic. “I try to be positive,” he adds. “In this particular work, the closeness of the family and the flowers all represent hope. I’ve reached my purpose if viewers can feel the warmth from the image.” Li’s brush-and-ink traditional artwork contrast the depicted mundane and everyday realities of life in lockdown, the artwork becomes alive with the colours of spring — nothing can stop the flowers opening.
Both artists believe art should play a decisive role during the crisis. “The power of artists may be messenger, but art can always encourage, inspire and enlighten people,” Guan adds. “I feel the role is to contribute to the society as a whole.” The connection and compassion between countries is essential for fighting the virus, maximising skills, vaccine efforts, and knowledge.
Read more: https://arichlife.com.au/love-unmasked-a-covid-19-art-auction/
Featured in AFR online and in Weekend Fin: Art for COVID-19's sake
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In a sign of the times, a fundraising auction for COVID-19 relief is being held online with the support of 22 Chinese and Australian artists and Vermillion Gallery in Sydney. But you don't have long to snare a work since the bidding ends at 10pm on Saturday April 4. Read more online if you are a subscriber to The Australian Financial Review. https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/arts-and-culture/art-for-covid-19-s-sake-20200323-p54cy2 |
2019
OUR FRIENDS & US opening night
Sun Ziyao featured in AFR
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Monkey magic: Sun Ziyao's ink art mixes modernity with tradition
by senior writer Lisa Murray Mixing ink with oil, wax and pencil to bring his images to life, Chinese artist Sun Ziyao's works are a modern take on traditional Chinese ink art. “His textures are very rich and the works are very contemporary,” says Yeqin Zuo, founder and director of Vermilion Art. “But you can still see the influence from the past. He leaves quite a bit of space in his work which draws on the traditional technique.” This mix of modern and traditional is not just in Sun’s methods, but also his content. The artwork Sun Wukong and White Dragon Horse is a contemporary take on the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West. A monkey in human form chats casually to someone in a horse mask and both are dressed in contemporary street fashion. They represent key characters in the novel – Sun Wukong or the Monkey King, who may be known to Australian audiences from the 1970s TV series adaptation Monkey, and the white horse belonging to Buddhist monk Tang Sanzang. Sun grew up in the coastal city of Dalian and a number of his works focus on sharks and whales. Zuo singles out one of his recent ink paintings, Body, for its raw and touching human quality. “It expresses passion and sensuality.” Sun lives and works in Beijing, but recently completed an international artist residency program at the TWT Creative Precinct in St Leonards, Sydney. Zuo was first introduced to Sun’s work by Chinese-Australian artist Guan Wei, who had come across the young artist in a group show in Beijing. “People are drawn to his art because it is unique and it doesn’t imitate anyone else’s work,” says Zuo. https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/arts-and-culture/monkey-magic-sun-ziyao-s-ink-art-mixes-modernity-with-tradition-20191119-p53buu |
Sun Ziyao at TWT Creative Precinct Art Residency
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Upcoming Vermilion Art Solo exhibition artist Sun Ziyao just completed an Art Residency program with TWT Creative Precinct, September 2019. TWT Creative Precinct is home to more than 70 artists and creative businesses from the visual, performing, music and film disciplines. Each year they hold a Block Party offering a free program of exhibitions, performances, music and workshops for all the community. Since opening in 2014, the precinct now offers more than 4,500sqms of subsidised space to the local creative community. |
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Nusra Latif Qureshi winner of 2019 Bulgaria Art Award
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Congratulations to Nusra Latif Qureshi as the 2019 Bulgaria Art Award winner at Art Gallery of NSW. Qureshi's work was featured in Vermilion Art's group exhibition Niche Construction in 2018. Niche Construction is an idea borrowed from evolutionary biology. It refers to the process whereby living organisms, through their activities and choices, modify their own and each other’s environment. In the context of culture and art, niche construction is a process in which individuals, although living in a unique and protected space, connect, collaborate, compete, and have influence on one another. |
The new MoMA featuring Xiao Lu and Cang Xin
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On the 21st October, MoMA's expanded galleries, New MOMA, opened their doors for the first time. The new spaces are specially designed for performance, conversation and art making. Vermilion Art artists Xiao Lu and Cang Xin's work are on display.
Great news from MoMA, congratulations on the new space! |
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Fang Lijun 1998.10 sold at Sotheby Hong Kong auction
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Fang Lijun’s (b.1963) work 1998.10, previously exhibited in Amsterdam and Brussel was sold for over AU$700,000 at Sotheby Hong Kong auction on 6 October. Great news to the artist and Fang Lijun collectors! |
Second Spring opening night | Curated by Dr Geoff Raby AO
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The Australian - Lin Chunyan: eastern eye, western light
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“I don’t like myself to be characterised,” he says. “Even the definition of artistic freedom limits your work. I just follow what is beautiful and what strikes me.”
He argues that his art has always been about landscape and man’s connection to the natural world, saying this can transcend any political differences between countries. “I am an artist of natural scenery,” he says. “Other artists may engage in philosophic thinking about political conflict, but I wanted to find a new path, a new expression reflecting the natural things.” “The conflict between East and West is pretty deep but I think human beings should go back to nature to seek the true meaning of life,” he says. “I don’t think politics and ideology should be mixed up with art. Ideology changes all the time but the relationship between human beings (and) the beauty of nature never changes. |
Lin Chunyan: Second Spring opened by Lucy Turnbull AO
Vermilion Art at Sydney Contemporary 2019
We are proud to announce Vermilion Art's artists for this year's Sydney Contemporary.
Chen Wenling
Fang Lijun
Li Jin
Lin Chunyan
Jason Phu
We look forward to seeing you at Booth G10 at Sydney Contemporary 2019!
Cang Xins Communication at NGV
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Cang Xin's ongoing “Communication” series, started in 1996, inivites us into the world of religion and tradition through his tongue. Cang Xin, one of China's most prominent performance artists. In 2017 at Sydney Contemporary in collaboration with Vermilion Art, he performed “Art Speaks in Tongues”, licking anything the audience presented him with. |
Ufos Per Se 2 - Australian Financial Review
Ufos Per Se 2 - 50-year anniversary of the Moon landing
by Tim Johnson, July 2019
Ufos Per Se 2 documents different types of ufos drawing on a wealth of imagery ranging from apparently real sightings to fake sightings to science fiction and to images that have become part of popular culture. There are actually some historical sightings of strange flying objects going back centuries that can be seen in older prints, paintings and tapestries, but with the advent of photography and more recently the mobile phone the archetypal disc shaped object has became the most prevalent.
With the 50th anniversary of the moon landing getting so much attention it's obvious that humans have the wish to travel in space and to explore the universe. As an artist I found that wondering what an alien presence might experience on earth offered an interesting new perspective and that an extra-terrestrial view of the universe could extend the concept of landscape. For this painting I collaborated with Los Angeles artist Daniel Bogunovic who has an interest in science fiction and has discovered many rare and aesthetically extraordinary images of ufos that have been incorporated into the work.
Early black and white photos of ufos originally got my attention because they were similar to the kind of conceptual and performance art photo-documentation that I was doing myself. The centre of the documentation was something enigmatic and unexplained. The mystery of what was being recorded and it's implications connected to the supernatural as well as to the history of mysterious and unexplained events that have inspired visionaries and those interested in experiences that transcend what's normal.
I painted the background of each panel as fast "action paintings", using my hands instead of brushes and assembled 44 small canvases with a chromatic shift through the colours of the rainbow. On each panel, working with Daniel, we strategically placed an image of a ufo. A few of the images are not ufos but are related to ufology, such as an image of an alien or science fiction "creatures". The work includes a wide range of ufo types, as mentioned, some are imagined but most are based on specific descriptions and actual sightings. The weirdness of the subject and it's associated events, such as abductions, altered perception, aerial light phenomena and inter-dimensional travel, to name a few, makes ufos a great subject to paint.
Ufos Per Se, a similar previous version, is in the collection of the Australian National Gallery and was included in their recent exhibition Earth/Sky.
Jason Phu solo show opening speech by Micheal Do
I’m a great believer that art — and in many ways — life should never come with a handle with care sticker. And if I were to think of any artist who embodies this mantra, through their irreverence and passion to disrupt traditional thinking and convention, it would be Jason Phu.
In private circles, I’ve described Jason’s paintings as from the school of drunken Chinese calligraphy. Although in a more formal setting (perhaps one like this opening tonight), I would describe his work as from the “new ink” genre –– a contemporary reimagining of classical Chinese Shui-mo(ink and brush) painting.
For those who don’t know Jason’s work well, his paintings invite you to experience a realm shrink-wrapped with the smell of nostalgia –– a place that distils histories and subjects drawn from classical Chinese art forms, intermingled with his own personal Chinese-Vietnamese-Australian upbringing.
By way of example, I can think of painted scenes of him shopping with his mum for strange Buddhas at Bunnings or being reincarnated as a refrigerated bowl of fried rice. Truly, Jason Phu is one of those rare artists who takes great pleasure, and pride, in admiring the strange situations in which we sometimes find ourselves. And this explains why Jason’s work linger in the imagination, engaging with our curiosity above all else.
In this new suite of works, Jason has painted 16 arhats or Luohans, disciples of Gautama Buddha (c. 563/480 – c. 483/400 BCE) who followed the Noble Eightfold Path to attain the four stages of enlightenment. One of the earliest depictions of the Luohans were painted by the Chinese monk Guanxiu (832AD – 912AD) in 891AD. Legend has it the Luohans appeared in Guanxiu’s dreams, pleading him to paint their likeness. The result were 16 portraits of these disciples painted as foreigners with bushy eyebrows, large eyes, hanging cheeks and high noses. As they had not been given pictorial form prior to this painting, they have lived on in history, recreated over and over again stylistically in this way.
And nearly 1200 years later, the Luohans appear again before us. In Jason’s version, these men are painted slightly stretched, a little jiggled and comically exaggerated. But they have not aged a day. And unlike traditional Daoist or Buddhist life principles that tend to accompany traditional literati interpretations of the Luohans, Jason has branded them with his unique, well, what I like to call, ‘phu-isms’.
“The snake is the most beautiful animal,” one of the Luohans ponders;
“I kicked a big stone and my toe hurts,” pleads another;
“apart from my head, there is nothing else.” Another says.
And when we first confront these statements, there is a tendency to mislabel them as prosaic platitudes, but sit with them, and you’ll find that they are aphorisms in the very sense — pithy, terse, insightful and most importantly, so very memorable. And this, I think sums up a large part of Jason’s practice. His humour and lightness of touch serves to underscore a more serious intent.
And for me, that’s the reminder that sometimes it’s the little strange things in life which give it meaning. From the strange buddha at Bunnings, to the bowls of rice that sit for weeks in our fridges, or the strange cast of characters each jostling for airtime around us tonight. All you need is a little imagination, an open mind and as Jason once told me, ‘the rest is history’.
Micheal Do
20 June 2019
In private circles, I’ve described Jason’s paintings as from the school of drunken Chinese calligraphy. Although in a more formal setting (perhaps one like this opening tonight), I would describe his work as from the “new ink” genre –– a contemporary reimagining of classical Chinese Shui-mo(ink and brush) painting.
For those who don’t know Jason’s work well, his paintings invite you to experience a realm shrink-wrapped with the smell of nostalgia –– a place that distils histories and subjects drawn from classical Chinese art forms, intermingled with his own personal Chinese-Vietnamese-Australian upbringing.
By way of example, I can think of painted scenes of him shopping with his mum for strange Buddhas at Bunnings or being reincarnated as a refrigerated bowl of fried rice. Truly, Jason Phu is one of those rare artists who takes great pleasure, and pride, in admiring the strange situations in which we sometimes find ourselves. And this explains why Jason’s work linger in the imagination, engaging with our curiosity above all else.
In this new suite of works, Jason has painted 16 arhats or Luohans, disciples of Gautama Buddha (c. 563/480 – c. 483/400 BCE) who followed the Noble Eightfold Path to attain the four stages of enlightenment. One of the earliest depictions of the Luohans were painted by the Chinese monk Guanxiu (832AD – 912AD) in 891AD. Legend has it the Luohans appeared in Guanxiu’s dreams, pleading him to paint their likeness. The result were 16 portraits of these disciples painted as foreigners with bushy eyebrows, large eyes, hanging cheeks and high noses. As they had not been given pictorial form prior to this painting, they have lived on in history, recreated over and over again stylistically in this way.
And nearly 1200 years later, the Luohans appear again before us. In Jason’s version, these men are painted slightly stretched, a little jiggled and comically exaggerated. But they have not aged a day. And unlike traditional Daoist or Buddhist life principles that tend to accompany traditional literati interpretations of the Luohans, Jason has branded them with his unique, well, what I like to call, ‘phu-isms’.
“The snake is the most beautiful animal,” one of the Luohans ponders;
“I kicked a big stone and my toe hurts,” pleads another;
“apart from my head, there is nothing else.” Another says.
And when we first confront these statements, there is a tendency to mislabel them as prosaic platitudes, but sit with them, and you’ll find that they are aphorisms in the very sense — pithy, terse, insightful and most importantly, so very memorable. And this, I think sums up a large part of Jason’s practice. His humour and lightness of touch serves to underscore a more serious intent.
And for me, that’s the reminder that sometimes it’s the little strange things in life which give it meaning. From the strange buddha at Bunnings, to the bowls of rice that sit for weeks in our fridges, or the strange cast of characters each jostling for airtime around us tonight. All you need is a little imagination, an open mind and as Jason once told me, ‘the rest is history’.
Micheal Do
20 June 2019
Jason Phu solo exhibition opening
Sands of Time opening speech by Luise Guest
“There is is a complex interwoven relationship between eastern and western art histories and philosophies, but a visual language that is entirely her own.” – Luise Guest
The title of the show, beyond referencing the landscapes of the artist’s native Shandong Province, and her coastal hometown of Yantai, suggests the measuring of time, but perhaps it also has associations of timelessness. For me this is very much the key to Gao Ping’s work – she is immersed in the physicality of her creation, referencing different aspects of Chinese tradition (most obviously in her ink works) and there is indeed a sense of both time passing and timelessness in the patient, quiet repetition and endless practice that brings refinement and depth to the work of a skilled artist.
Another association, of course, is the hourglass or ‘sand clock’ which measures time, and human lives. Gao Ping’s work refers both to that sense of timelessness, of being ‘in the moment’ of creation in the studio where you cease to be aware of time, but also to the slightly melancholy consciousness of the passage of time – even, in these works, of geological time, the wearing away of mountain ranges and the slow tectonic shifts of the plates of the earth. In Shandong Province, there are rocks that are billions of years old, that were once under the ocean and have marine fossils embedded within them even though they are now found in quarries far from the coast – it is also home to sites of the most significant dinosaur fossils, so the idea of aeons of time is embedded in the very landscape. Gao Ping’s ink and acrylic works in this show convey that element of layering, sedimentation and geological weathering, of wind and water turning rock to grains of sand – even when their subject is the contemporary banal such as - an electrical power board.
On that and many subsequent studio visits over the last ten years, the other thing that I have come to love about her work is that she really knows how to use grey. I happen to be a person who loves grey and grisaille painting. Its subtlety is a wonderful thing – look for example at paintings in this exhibition such as ‘Fruits’, or at ‘Flower’ or ‘Stone 2’ and see how beautifully the grey washes are balanced and modulated with other tones and almost hidden colours.
Her technique in these works is interesting and idiosyncratic – she draws quickly but then builds up layers over layers, creating a rich palimpsest of washes of ink and acrylic that are scraped back, drawn into, re-painted and scraped back again so that traces of ghostly forms beneath the surface become reminders of the artist’s physical gestures as she works in the studio. These works apply unorthodox combinations of materials. Thinned washes of acrylic are brushed over the Chinese ink underneath, and vice versa, in a process somewhat like a wax resist. The result is moody, atmospheric and subtle, with glimpses of objects or of landscapes seen through haze and mist. Gao Ping transforms the mundane - a rock, some fruit, a pile of chairs or a stack of boxes - into something mysterious and other-worldly. Sometimes subtle hints of colour underlie the dominant greys and blacks which remind us that Chinese ink is, after all, formed from soot.
Like many other contemporary Chinese artists, Gao is interested in Daoistphilosophy and in the strange (to western minds) paradox of the harmonious relationship between apparent opposites, yin and yang, light and dark, form and space. Within each of Gao Ping’s paintings, there is is a complex interwoven relationship between eastern and western art histories and philosophies, but a visual language that is entirely her own.
(excerpts)
Luise Guest
2 May 2019
Read Luise's full speech here.
The title of the show, beyond referencing the landscapes of the artist’s native Shandong Province, and her coastal hometown of Yantai, suggests the measuring of time, but perhaps it also has associations of timelessness. For me this is very much the key to Gao Ping’s work – she is immersed in the physicality of her creation, referencing different aspects of Chinese tradition (most obviously in her ink works) and there is indeed a sense of both time passing and timelessness in the patient, quiet repetition and endless practice that brings refinement and depth to the work of a skilled artist.
Another association, of course, is the hourglass or ‘sand clock’ which measures time, and human lives. Gao Ping’s work refers both to that sense of timelessness, of being ‘in the moment’ of creation in the studio where you cease to be aware of time, but also to the slightly melancholy consciousness of the passage of time – even, in these works, of geological time, the wearing away of mountain ranges and the slow tectonic shifts of the plates of the earth. In Shandong Province, there are rocks that are billions of years old, that were once under the ocean and have marine fossils embedded within them even though they are now found in quarries far from the coast – it is also home to sites of the most significant dinosaur fossils, so the idea of aeons of time is embedded in the very landscape. Gao Ping’s ink and acrylic works in this show convey that element of layering, sedimentation and geological weathering, of wind and water turning rock to grains of sand – even when their subject is the contemporary banal such as - an electrical power board.
On that and many subsequent studio visits over the last ten years, the other thing that I have come to love about her work is that she really knows how to use grey. I happen to be a person who loves grey and grisaille painting. Its subtlety is a wonderful thing – look for example at paintings in this exhibition such as ‘Fruits’, or at ‘Flower’ or ‘Stone 2’ and see how beautifully the grey washes are balanced and modulated with other tones and almost hidden colours.
Her technique in these works is interesting and idiosyncratic – she draws quickly but then builds up layers over layers, creating a rich palimpsest of washes of ink and acrylic that are scraped back, drawn into, re-painted and scraped back again so that traces of ghostly forms beneath the surface become reminders of the artist’s physical gestures as she works in the studio. These works apply unorthodox combinations of materials. Thinned washes of acrylic are brushed over the Chinese ink underneath, and vice versa, in a process somewhat like a wax resist. The result is moody, atmospheric and subtle, with glimpses of objects or of landscapes seen through haze and mist. Gao Ping transforms the mundane - a rock, some fruit, a pile of chairs or a stack of boxes - into something mysterious and other-worldly. Sometimes subtle hints of colour underlie the dominant greys and blacks which remind us that Chinese ink is, after all, formed from soot.
Like many other contemporary Chinese artists, Gao is interested in Daoistphilosophy and in the strange (to western minds) paradox of the harmonious relationship between apparent opposites, yin and yang, light and dark, form and space. Within each of Gao Ping’s paintings, there is is a complex interwoven relationship between eastern and western art histories and philosophies, but a visual language that is entirely her own.
(excerpts)
Luise Guest
2 May 2019
Read Luise's full speech here.
Opening of Sands of Time
AFR posts a story on Gao Ping's solo show Sands of Time
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Beijing artist Gao Ping has drawn on her memories of her childhood in the coastal town of Yantai in northern China for the works in her exhibition Sands of Time.
She trained at the prestigious art school, Central Academy of Fine Arts, and draws on a life-long interest in Shuimo, the traditional form of ink painting and says she is a traditionalist in a contemporary world. She describes her style as free, in that it escapes the conventional. https://www.afr.com/lifestyle/how-to-show-what-you-feel-20190424-p51gpq |
Fang Lijun honoured 2019 Asia Arts Game Change Award
Congratulations to Fang Lijun who is one of the honourees of the 2019 Asia Arts Game Change Award by Asia Society Hong Kong.
For more information, see here.
AFR featuring artist Rose Wong
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AFR has a story on artist Rose Wong by Lisa Murray. Beijing-based Rose Wong who has recently completed an international residency at Sydney's TWT Creative Precinct shares about her views on sex, power and Utopia.
Lisa Murray writes: "Rose Wong's female-empowering installations are all the more relevant in the #MeToo era." “Moving abroad is like taking your heart out of your body and putting it somewhere else to see if the soil is good and it grows.” "One of her most famous works is a series of grenades, cut in half, and painted as fruit on the inside. Wong says the grenades, which were shown as part of a group exhibition at Vermilion Art gallery last year, are about 'sex and power'." Read more here if you are a subscriber to The Australian Financial Review. |
Geng Xue's work unveiled as China Pavilion prepares for the 58th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale
Geng Xue is one of the four artists representing China at Venice this year. Her work has been recently unveiled as China Pavilion prepares for the 58th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. She immerses her pregnancy experience and her thinking over birth and death in a clay sculpture filmlet.
Read more here.
Read more here.
Dr Geoff Raby's comment on Fang Lijun's 1st solo exhibition in Australia
Fang Lijun was a leading member of a small group of Chinese contemporary artists who, from the late 1990s, established Chinese contemporary art as major international force, with prices to match its global recognition.
Fang’s work is characteristic of the unique cynical realist movement, whose origins lay in the period following the Tiananmen Square violence of 1989. With the ensuing shock loss of innocence and optimism characteristic of the early years of economic reform and open door policies, Fang and his colleagues began developing a new style which brazenly commented on the emerging social contract between the Party-state and the people. The Party will get out of the detail of people’s daily lives, in return for them accepting unquestioningly the Communist Party’s rule.
Happy pigs became a common theme used for capturing and sardonically commenting on this implicit social contract between Party and the people. Less predictably, Fang Lijun crafted a wildly grinning, idiotic, self-portrait with which he ubiquitously populated his canvasses. His parades of grinning faces were like masks, concealing deeper anxieties which lay behind.
In this latest exhibition at Vermillion Gallery, Fang has developed a technique for making large-format, brilliantly coloured woodblock prints. His self-portrait like shaved head is still there, but gone are the idiotic grins, replaced by expressions of the anxiety, uncertainty, foreboding that had previously been concealed. Is it that the Party-state’s social contract is ending? Or are there existential concerns of environmental apocalypse? Or just that a more mature artist is facing his own personal aging and the uncertainties and fears that brings?
These are powerful works in bold striking colour by a confident established major artist and a must to see.
Opening of Fang Lijun: Facial recognition
SMH art critic John McDonald's article on Fang Lijun: Facial recognition
Fang Lijun, 2016, 2016, woodblock print on silk, edition of 12, 244 x 366 cm
A shaven head sends a message but it’s an ambiguous one. The shaven heads of prisoners or monks tell us they belong to an order of humanity removed from the social mainstream. The shaven head of a soldier, a footballer, or indeed a football hooligan, is a badge of aggressive intent. When a businessman shaves his head it denotes a decisive, commanding personality - or at least tries to give that impression.
In Fang Lijun’s work the shaven head is virtually a universal condition. It’s both trademark and self-portrait. But when we are confronted with an entire crowd of bald-headed figures – men, women and children – we’re obliged to see it as a way of stripping away differences, reminding us that we’re all citizens of the same planet, subject to the same overarching forces of history. We may be richer or poorer, eastern or western, but what we have in common overrides those things that divide us.
That’s the positive, humanistic interpretation. When he first came to prominence in the early 1990s, as an exponent of so-called Cynical Realism, Fang seemed a more rebellious figure. The bald-headed clones in his paintings were perpetually leering or yawning, as if the spectacle of China becoming a prosperous consumer society was so ridiculous they could only laugh, or so boring they could barely keep their eyes open. Either way, Fang’s skinheads expressed a scarcely veiled contempt for the glorious new order unfolding around them.
This was a way for Fang, a member of the generation that saw hopes of political change dashed in 1989, to express his feelings about a country that had embraced the free market while keeping a close rein on personal freedoms. For older people in China that sort of public excitement was nothing new. Under Chairman Mao the masses were continually exhorted to keep “making revolution” while everyday life remained grey and impoverished.
Painting a yawn or a sneer could hardly be classified as a political gesture but it wasn’t difficult to decode such an image. Nowadays, like most Chinese artists, Fang shrewdly disavows overtly political interpretations of his work, and it may be that over time his shaven headed figure has taken on a broader range of meanings.
Since graduating from Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1989 Fang has continued to experiment with woodblock prints, a medium he pursues with incredible vigour, using an electronic cutting tool rather the traditional small knives and gouges. Some of these works have been on a monumental scale, extending for seven or eight metres across multiple panels. Such pieces have been exhibited, and often acquired, by institutions such the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
With the exception of the pig, in homage to the Lunar New Year, the vividly-coloured prints being shown at Vermilion concentrate on faces. There are 10 obvious self-portraits but the other prints are also dominated by shaven-headed figures that bear a superficial resemblance to the artist. One portrays a man with tears streaming down his face, in others we see groups of faces smiling and laughing. Even if the laughter is tinged with hysteria, by Fang’s standards these are remarkably festive pictures.
In the largest work in the show, simply titled 2016, a crowd of bald-headed men tilt their heads and stare skywards. Mouths hang slightly open in anticipation – but of what? They might be watching New Year fireworks or a political rally, perhaps a soccer match on a big screen. Whatever they are looking at, they are completely engaged. Standing in front of this work we absorb the image of these eager spectators and try to imagine the object of their fascination. We do exactly what the men in the print are doing, and this is Fang’s point: today we are all watchers, all eager consumers of spectacle. It’s not clear whether this is a subsititute for action or a necessary prelude. Either way it’s an activity that sucks up much of our lives. No longer yawning, no longer smirking, Fang’s characters - and his audience - are now all attention.
John McDonald, Feb 2019
Exhibition duration: 21 Feb - 18 Apr
Xiao Lu: Impossible Dialogue 肖鲁:语嘿.
19 Jan - 24 Mar 2019, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
Xiao Lu is a leading contemporary Chinese artist whose upcoming exhibition, Impossible Dialogue 肖鲁:语嘿. revisits her ground breaking performance work Dialogue from the landmark China/Avant-Garde exhibition at the National Art Gallery, Beijing, in February 1989. Xiao Lu made her mark on the contemporary art world when she shot her own art installation Dialogue (1989), which shows a man and a woman talking to each other in phone booths. Between them is a red phone with its receiver dangling off the hook. Dialogue(1989) could be called China’s first major feminist contemporary work of art.
For more information, see here.
For more information, see here.
2018
Vermilion Art + TWT + BHCF present Paper Story Opening
Chinese photographer Luo Yang has made BBC's 100 Women list for 2018
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Luo Yang has made to the list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2018. BBC regularly chooses innovative and passionate voices to be a part of their list. Currently Beijing based, Luo Yang who was named one of the rising starts of Chinese photography by Ai Weiwei. Her insightful photographic series, Girls (2008-2016), which focuses on emerging Chinese youth culture that defies imposed expectations and stereotypes. It explores themes of youth and femininity while challenging traditional beliefs about Chinese women.
For more information, see here.
For more information, see here.
Jason Phu is in Primavera 2018: Young Australian Artists, MCA, 9 November 2018
Featuring the work of eight artists aged 35 years and under from the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, Primavera 2018: Young Australian Artists opens on 9 November 2018. Curated by Megan Robson, the 27th annual exhibition brings together artists working with archival materials, installation, painting, performance, photography, sculpture and video.
For more information, see here.
For more information, see here.
ACIAC Launches ‘The Geoff Raby Collection of Contemporary Chinese Art’ at Vermilion Art
ACIAC Advisory Board Chair Dr Geoff Raby is known to many as an economist, a diplomat and a consultant
working between Australia and China, but he is also a fervent lover of art, especially contemporary Chinese art.
On 11 October, 2018, the Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture launched his beautifully published
catalogue — The Geoff Raby Collection of Contemporary Chinese Art — in Vermilion Art Gallery of Sydney. Vice
Chancellor and President of Western Sydney University and ACIAC Board Chair Professor Barney Glover spoke
to an enthusiastic crowd and helped present the collection. He commended Dr Raby for his passion,
knowledge and devotion to his subject matter and for the depth of cultural understanding and resonance that
he brought to contemporary Australia-China relationship. And he also spoke highly of Dr Raby’s collect
For more information, see here.
working between Australia and China, but he is also a fervent lover of art, especially contemporary Chinese art.
On 11 October, 2018, the Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture launched his beautifully published
catalogue — The Geoff Raby Collection of Contemporary Chinese Art — in Vermilion Art Gallery of Sydney. Vice
Chancellor and President of Western Sydney University and ACIAC Board Chair Professor Barney Glover spoke
to an enthusiastic crowd and helped present the collection. He commended Dr Raby for his passion,
knowledge and devotion to his subject matter and for the depth of cultural understanding and resonance that
he brought to contemporary Australia-China relationship. And he also spoke highly of Dr Raby’s collect
For more information, see here.
Jason Phu receives Golden Wattle Awards for achievements and community contributions
Big congratulations to Jason who is the winner of Inaugural Golden Wattle Award!
Ten Chinese-Australian youths from public and private sectors have become the recipients of the 2018 Golden
Wattle Awards, which celebrate outstanding achievements and contributions to the community.
The winners, in fields ranging from public services, arts and sports, academia to business, received the biennial
accolade in a ceremony at the University of Sydney in the New South Wales (NSW) state capital at weekend.
For more information, see here.
Ten Chinese-Australian youths from public and private sectors have become the recipients of the 2018 Golden
Wattle Awards, which celebrate outstanding achievements and contributions to the community.
The winners, in fields ranging from public services, arts and sports, academia to business, received the biennial
accolade in a ceremony at the University of Sydney in the New South Wales (NSW) state capital at weekend.
For more information, see here.
Cyrus Tang is the finalist for the Bowness Photography Prize
Congratulations to Cyrus Tang on becoming the finalist for the Bowness Photography Prize. Join the stories behind the works on display in the William & Winifred Bowness Photography Prize.
Exhibition dates: 29 September 2018 to 18 November 2018
mga.org.au/bowness-prize
Exhibition dates: 29 September 2018 to 18 November 2018
mga.org.au/bowness-prize
Contemporary Chinese artists feature at Sydney Fair
Current international and local artists will feature at Australia's biggest art fair, Sydney Contemporary, which opened on Sept. 13 and will continue over the weekend, displaying and selling thousands of world class creations. Among the more than 70 galleries represented at the fair is Vermillion Art. Located on Walsh Bay near the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Vermilion is the first commercial gallery focused on contemporary Chinese art to have opened in Australia.
Gallery owner Yeqin Zuo told Xinhua that while contemporary Chinese art is highly regarded and has featured at public galleries and festivals in Australia for decades, she
saw a lack of availability of the style for private purchase. To read more, see here.
Gallery owner Yeqin Zuo told Xinhua that while contemporary Chinese art is highly regarded and has featured at public galleries and festivals in Australia for decades, she
saw a lack of availability of the style for private purchase. To read more, see here.
Opening Speech by Edmund Capon AM OBE for Niche Construction
If you listen to the so often poorly informed utterings of our politicians, some academics and of course the media we hear constantly about ‘multi-culturalism’ as though this is some new late 20thcentury phenomenon; and not that multi-culturalism has been around for over two millennia - the north of China and north west China two thousand years ago, where no cultural borders existed and peoples roamed those lands more or less at will. And of course those ancient Silk Roads are the most obvious examples of hugely diverse communities living, trading and working together. We all know about the great trading centres, such as Kashgar, Xian and Loyang and how cosmopolitan they were - which brings us to our friend Guan Wei. Is there today any more wonderful and inspirational ‘human metaphor’ for so-called multi-culturalism...than he?
Before a few words about the show he has curated I must say a word or two about our artist turned curator (a temporary measure!) and his work. We all very familiar with his wonderful and richly distinctive work; i have never felt that there is much overbearing ‘message’ about Guan’s work and yet it is replete with narrative, wit and humour and always purpose. There is an underlying spirit of goodness, humanity and optimism in his work. Those ever so familiar little sperm-like figures of his that playfully romp and gallivant across his compositions; they tell stories, like fairy tales and like all such tales they are not without their little hints of disquiet and contradiction. One can obviously see a profound and inevitable affiliation to China in Guan’s work – his loyalty to his inherited culture is beyond question, and then there is that lightness of touch, even whimsy, in the glimpses of his half-adopted homeland here, in Australia.
There are often, I sense, contrasting sensibilities at work here which one can’t help suspect are inflicting subtle criticism of his native China and some of the country’s current values and attitudes which conflict with Guan’s own emotive, mindful, very human and instinctive values.
And yet for all the hovering little clouds of mystery and lurking uncertainty that may be alluded to his work remains a life-enhancing joy to behold. His paintings and figure sculptures are redolent with a genuine and refreshing humanity and free of any sense of censure. There is a lightness of touch in Guan’s work that belies a deeply felt seriousness of purpose.
Now to the show he has created – here again he is providing a rich barometer of current change and evolution. He has co-operated with five artists: Nusra Latif Qureshi from Pakistan; Cyrus Tang from HK; Tony Scott from Aus; Chen Yanyin from Shanghai; and Liu Xiao Xian from China ( Liu is particularly well known to me; he arrived in Australia in 1990 and we acquired for AGNSW two major works by Liu: Our Gods(2000) and The way we eat( 2009). The artists Guan has selected all come from around Asia but now call Australia home;.bringing with them their inevitably retained cultural memories and histories that have been absorbed into the present experience of living in Australia.- It isa true mingling of cultural experience, knowledge and appreciation that serves only to enhance tolerance and understanding.
And just to demonstrate how topical and pertinent Guan’s show is; .22 years ago 4A was launched (with Melissa Chiu as the founding director) with its programmes of engagement between Australian artists and artists from the Asian region, including of course artists from Asia who had relocated to Australia. As many of you may recall in those early years China dominated our programmes.
Now it is a very different picture as artists from North Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia have moved here. That positive evolution is reflected in Guan’s show; our view and embrace of Asia as a vast and varied part of the globe is now recognised and in this process we can see multi-culturalism at work at its most positive and constructive.
Furthermore Guan has chosen a theme; again one that intrigues and is seriously active right now in current thinking. It is how living organisms evolve and adapt to changing conditions, but here through the works of artists who are themselves responding to those inevitable and evolving changes occurring. And of course the interaction of peoples of differing cultural backgrounds – ie multi-culturalism – is very much a part of that process. I happen to believe multi-culturalism can be very much a positive aid to tolerance and understanding; others may disagree but having spent much of my life in the pursuit of studies of Chinese art and culture and hopefully managed to incorporate all those experiences into my typical and classic ‘Western’ education and culture I am very conscious of the knowledge gained from such diverse studies has only enriched my appreciation, and indeed tolerance and understanding, of vastly differing cultures and values. The only problem with all this study is that in the end you realise that whilst you may know a little there as far far too much more to learn! Guan’s show is a gentle reminder to us all of the joy of harmony.
So with that thank you Yeqin, thanks Guan and 我宣布《小生境》展览正式开幕了。
Edmund Capon
Before a few words about the show he has curated I must say a word or two about our artist turned curator (a temporary measure!) and his work. We all very familiar with his wonderful and richly distinctive work; i have never felt that there is much overbearing ‘message’ about Guan’s work and yet it is replete with narrative, wit and humour and always purpose. There is an underlying spirit of goodness, humanity and optimism in his work. Those ever so familiar little sperm-like figures of his that playfully romp and gallivant across his compositions; they tell stories, like fairy tales and like all such tales they are not without their little hints of disquiet and contradiction. One can obviously see a profound and inevitable affiliation to China in Guan’s work – his loyalty to his inherited culture is beyond question, and then there is that lightness of touch, even whimsy, in the glimpses of his half-adopted homeland here, in Australia.
There are often, I sense, contrasting sensibilities at work here which one can’t help suspect are inflicting subtle criticism of his native China and some of the country’s current values and attitudes which conflict with Guan’s own emotive, mindful, very human and instinctive values.
And yet for all the hovering little clouds of mystery and lurking uncertainty that may be alluded to his work remains a life-enhancing joy to behold. His paintings and figure sculptures are redolent with a genuine and refreshing humanity and free of any sense of censure. There is a lightness of touch in Guan’s work that belies a deeply felt seriousness of purpose.
Now to the show he has created – here again he is providing a rich barometer of current change and evolution. He has co-operated with five artists: Nusra Latif Qureshi from Pakistan; Cyrus Tang from HK; Tony Scott from Aus; Chen Yanyin from Shanghai; and Liu Xiao Xian from China ( Liu is particularly well known to me; he arrived in Australia in 1990 and we acquired for AGNSW two major works by Liu: Our Gods(2000) and The way we eat( 2009). The artists Guan has selected all come from around Asia but now call Australia home;.bringing with them their inevitably retained cultural memories and histories that have been absorbed into the present experience of living in Australia.- It isa true mingling of cultural experience, knowledge and appreciation that serves only to enhance tolerance and understanding.
And just to demonstrate how topical and pertinent Guan’s show is; .22 years ago 4A was launched (with Melissa Chiu as the founding director) with its programmes of engagement between Australian artists and artists from the Asian region, including of course artists from Asia who had relocated to Australia. As many of you may recall in those early years China dominated our programmes.
Now it is a very different picture as artists from North Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia have moved here. That positive evolution is reflected in Guan’s show; our view and embrace of Asia as a vast and varied part of the globe is now recognised and in this process we can see multi-culturalism at work at its most positive and constructive.
Furthermore Guan has chosen a theme; again one that intrigues and is seriously active right now in current thinking. It is how living organisms evolve and adapt to changing conditions, but here through the works of artists who are themselves responding to those inevitable and evolving changes occurring. And of course the interaction of peoples of differing cultural backgrounds – ie multi-culturalism – is very much a part of that process. I happen to believe multi-culturalism can be very much a positive aid to tolerance and understanding; others may disagree but having spent much of my life in the pursuit of studies of Chinese art and culture and hopefully managed to incorporate all those experiences into my typical and classic ‘Western’ education and culture I am very conscious of the knowledge gained from such diverse studies has only enriched my appreciation, and indeed tolerance and understanding, of vastly differing cultures and values. The only problem with all this study is that in the end you realise that whilst you may know a little there as far far too much more to learn! Guan’s show is a gentle reminder to us all of the joy of harmony.
So with that thank you Yeqin, thanks Guan and 我宣布《小生境》展览正式开幕了。
Edmund Capon
Opening of Niche Construction, curated by Guan Wei
Exhibition duration: 27 Sep - 10 Nov 2018
Exhibition duration: 27 Sep - 10 Nov 2018
Good News!
Jason Phu announced as finalist in the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship 2018
The milk from my penis is full of antioxidants, 2017,
ink on xuan paper, 48×70cm
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Geng Xue received Wu Zuoren Young Artist awardOur warm congratulations to Geng Xue who has received the prestigious Wu Zuoren Young Artist Award at The National Museum of China. Geng Xue (b.1983), she is currently lives and teaches sculpture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China.
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Opening speech by Professor Paul Gladston for Shan Shui Australis
Shan-shui: Responding to Contemporaneity
Shan-shui (literally ‘mountains and water’) ink and brush landscape painting is one of the durable icons of Chinese culture. Even if we don’t know the name or the history of shan-shui, or indeed its specific cultural significances, we will almost certainly have encountered its singular look in both high and low cultural contexts: adorning the walls of restaurants and museums alike. In short, shan-shui is a globally recognised signifier that immediately connotes ‘Chineseness’ across cultural boundaries and hierarchies.
Shan-shui has a particular historical relationship to Confucian thought and practice and by association the scholarly class known in Latinised terms as the literati and in Mandarin Chinese as the shi dafu. The literati served as administrators of the Chinese imperial state for over a millennium from the Han dynasty until the founding of Republican China in 1911-12. Official appointments to administration of the Chinese imperial state were initially secured through a combination of aristocratic status and the passing of state examinations requiring demonstrations of scholarly erudition and essay writing. From the Tang dynasty those examinations were opened up to other classes in an attempt to make selection more meritocratic.
Opening of Shan Shui Australis — Dapeng Liu's Solo Exhibition by Professor Paul Gladston, the inaugural Judith Neilson Chair of Contemporary Art at UNSW
Exhibition duration: 9 Aug - 8 Sept 2018
The Sculpture of Qing Qing: Between Memory and Metaphor
Chen Qing Qing (known as Qing Qing) layers past and present in her surreal sculptural
installations. Renown for her beautiful, ethereal imperial robes made of grass and hemp, she also
creates diorama-like works inspired by her early love for Joseph Cornell’s magical box sculptures,
and more recently she has branched out into fiberglass figurative sculpture. Culture Trip talks
to Qing Qing in her Songzhuang studio near Beijing.
To read the full article, please refer to: https://theculturetrip.com/asia/china/articles/the-
sculptures-of-qing-qing-between-memory-and-metaphor/
Chen Qing Qing (known as Qing Qing) layers past and present in her surreal sculptural
installations. Renown for her beautiful, ethereal imperial robes made of grass and hemp, she also
creates diorama-like works inspired by her early love for Joseph Cornell’s magical box sculptures,
and more recently she has branched out into fiberglass figurative sculpture. Culture Trip talks
to Qing Qing in her Songzhuang studio near Beijing.
To read the full article, please refer to: https://theculturetrip.com/asia/china/articles/the-
sculptures-of-qing-qing-between-memory-and-metaphor/
An article about Sworn Sisters by Luise Guest
"Vermilion Art bravely showed the first exhibition of Chinese women artists in Australia, curated by former Australian Ambassador to China, Geoff Raby. I say 'bravely' because the history of all-women exhibitions inside and outside of China is contested and complicated."
- Luise Guest, art educator in China
To read the full article, please refer to: https://anartteacherinchina.blogspot.com/2018/06/sworn-sisters.html?m=1
"Vermilion Art bravely showed the first exhibition of Chinese women artists in Australia, curated by former Australian Ambassador to China, Geoff Raby. I say 'bravely' because the history of all-women exhibitions inside and outside of China is contested and complicated."
- Luise Guest, art educator in China
To read the full article, please refer to: https://anartteacherinchina.blogspot.com/2018/06/sworn-sisters.html?m=1
The Artling publish piece on Sworn Sisters exhibition
"I really hope the show may have or can achieve an influence over the conversation about Australia's relationship with China. Maybe it doesn't change the conversation, but at least the tone. No one who goes to see this show can possibly look at it and leave their prejudices and stereotypes the same. If you go there, with even the slightest open mind, it would change anything about China. " - Geoff Raby on Sworn Sisters
To read the full interview, please refer to: https://theartling.com/en/artzine/2018/05/30/sworn-sisters-in-conversation-with-xiao-lu-rose-wong-and-dr-geoff-raby/
To read the full interview, please refer to: https://theartling.com/en/artzine/2018/05/30/sworn-sisters-in-conversation-with-xiao-lu-rose-wong-and-dr-geoff-raby/
Opening of Sworn Sisters
Exhibition duration: 24th May - 14 July 2018
Exhibition duration: 24th May - 14 July 2018
Sworn Sisters Opening Night | Curated by Geoff Raby
Thank you all who attended Vermilion Art's Sworn Sisters opening night. It was a sensational evening with over 300 guests who attended. Please take a moment to check out the short film created for the event. You can also find it via the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmpgjLo62v
Filmed and edited by Tamra Heinzel and Chris David
Sworn Sisters on AFR full page story
"All of these artworks are strong expressions of individualism and freedom. This is not a state-directed medium, it's one that is enormously effervescent and bubbly, filled with parody and criticism. I hope people will talk about Chinese not as agents of influence but as artists challenging and pushing the boundaries."
- Geoff Raby, Curator of Sworn Sisters
To read more, please click
http://www.afr.com/lifestyle/arts-and-entertainment/art/chinese-artist-xiao-lu-returns-to-australia-to-break-the-ice-20180516-h105tp#
First exhibition by contemporary Chinese woman artists in Australia, curated by Geoff Raby
Economic and political issues have dominated the current debate about the Australia - China relationship with much less emphasis being given to cultural ties and exchange.
Sworn Sisters 女书 is an exhibition of works by nine established and emerging female artists from China. The exhibition is curated by Geoff Raby, the former Australian ambassador to China and has been a pionner collector of contemporary Chinese art since 1980’s. “This will be the first exhibition to be held in Australia that features exclusively contemporary Chinese women artists “says Dr Raby. “Chinese contemporary artists have in many ways taken the contemporary art world by storm, but Chinese women artists are less known. We hope that this exhibition challenges some of the stereotypes we have about Chinese women and the role they play in Chinese society.” he says.
The title of this exhibition refers to the Chinese word Nüshu, the name of a special script used exclusively among women in Southern China. Songs in Nüshu were delivered on the third day after a young woman's marriage, and expressed hopes for the happiness of the young woman leaving the village and sorrow for her parting.
“This is the 20th exhibition of Contemporary Chinese art to be shown by Vermilion Art since it opened in 2015” says Dr Yeqin Zuo, the gallery director. “Dr Raby is a passionate collector and supporter of Chinese contemporary art and artists. We are honoured that he has assembled this group of Chinese women artists, including leading artists Xiao Lu, Chen Qingqing and Hu Ming as well as some emerging artists with great potential” she says.
Sworn Sisters will be on show from 25 May 2018. Nine artists selected for Sworn Sisters are Chen Qingqing, Feng Ling, Hu Ming, Li Lin Lin, Luo Yang, Geng Xue, Cindy Ng, Rose Wong and Xiao Lu.
Vermilion Art is the first commercial gallery devoted to contemporary Chinese art in Australia and has been in operation since October 2015.
Sworn Sisters 女书 is an exhibition of works by nine established and emerging female artists from China. The exhibition is curated by Geoff Raby, the former Australian ambassador to China and has been a pionner collector of contemporary Chinese art since 1980’s. “This will be the first exhibition to be held in Australia that features exclusively contemporary Chinese women artists “says Dr Raby. “Chinese contemporary artists have in many ways taken the contemporary art world by storm, but Chinese women artists are less known. We hope that this exhibition challenges some of the stereotypes we have about Chinese women and the role they play in Chinese society.” he says.
The title of this exhibition refers to the Chinese word Nüshu, the name of a special script used exclusively among women in Southern China. Songs in Nüshu were delivered on the third day after a young woman's marriage, and expressed hopes for the happiness of the young woman leaving the village and sorrow for her parting.
“This is the 20th exhibition of Contemporary Chinese art to be shown by Vermilion Art since it opened in 2015” says Dr Yeqin Zuo, the gallery director. “Dr Raby is a passionate collector and supporter of Chinese contemporary art and artists. We are honoured that he has assembled this group of Chinese women artists, including leading artists Xiao Lu, Chen Qingqing and Hu Ming as well as some emerging artists with great potential” she says.
Sworn Sisters will be on show from 25 May 2018. Nine artists selected for Sworn Sisters are Chen Qingqing, Feng Ling, Hu Ming, Li Lin Lin, Luo Yang, Geng Xue, Cindy Ng, Rose Wong and Xiao Lu.
Vermilion Art is the first commercial gallery devoted to contemporary Chinese art in Australia and has been in operation since October 2015.
Congratulations Jason Phu!
FINALIST IN THE 2018 SULMAN PRIZE
FINALIST IN THE 2018 SULMAN PRIZE
Artwork: On the bbq were a thousand thousand generic meat sausages that the hand of Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, calmly turned. She was unperturbed by the vicious spitting oil. Shaking her warm empty can she yelled out 'can someone get me a beer?' , acrylic on linen, 250x180cm
Artist statement
It was the worst house party I had ever been to. Cai Yan is sitting on the esky in the full sun without sunscreen, refusing anyone a beer. She is muttering to herself over and over, ‘I’ve seen harsher suns than this’. Laozi is passed out under a tree of worm-infested apricots. And some lady from Sichuan was chasing a hermit from the mountains around the house with a bamboo pole. The hermit was giggling uncontrollably, infuriating her even more. No-one could tell me why she was so angry or why he was giggling, only that they were both gatecrashers. - Jason Phu, 2018
UNSW Art & Design graduate Jason Phu won the Sulman Prize and received a Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship in 2015. He had also been selected as as a finalist in the Archibald and Sulman prizes, two of Australia’s most prestigious art competitions.
Jason’s raw and profane ink works explore his heritage as a Chinese Australian, born to parents who lived through the Cultural Revolution and Vietnam War.
Artist statement
It was the worst house party I had ever been to. Cai Yan is sitting on the esky in the full sun without sunscreen, refusing anyone a beer. She is muttering to herself over and over, ‘I’ve seen harsher suns than this’. Laozi is passed out under a tree of worm-infested apricots. And some lady from Sichuan was chasing a hermit from the mountains around the house with a bamboo pole. The hermit was giggling uncontrollably, infuriating her even more. No-one could tell me why she was so angry or why he was giggling, only that they were both gatecrashers. - Jason Phu, 2018
UNSW Art & Design graduate Jason Phu won the Sulman Prize and received a Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship in 2015. He had also been selected as as a finalist in the Archibald and Sulman prizes, two of Australia’s most prestigious art competitions.
Jason’s raw and profane ink works explore his heritage as a Chinese Australian, born to parents who lived through the Cultural Revolution and Vietnam War.
Zhang Xiao Named 2018 Robert Gardner Fellow in Photography
The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, is pleased to announce the selection of the 2018 Robert Gardner Fellow in Photography. Following an international search, the Gardner Fellowship committee awarded the Fellowship to photographer Zhang Xiao (China). The Fellowship carries a $50,000 stipend to begin or complete a proposed project followed by the publication of a book.
Opening of Pareidolia by art curator Natalia Bradshaw and artist Ah Xian (guest speaker)
Exhibition duration: 6 Apr - 12 May 2018
Archives of Longing 点絳•唇
Curator + Opening Speaker: Guan Wei
Exhibition duration: 14 Feb - 24 March 2018
Special Interview
Navigating Liminal Space: Guan Wei
2017
Under the Same Moon
Opening Speech by Claudia Chan Shaw
Opening of Under the Same Moon by Claudia Chan Shaw, Sydney fashion designer and television presenter
Exhibition duration: 23 Nov - 23 Dec 2017
Opening of In Wilderness by Richard Wu, Sydney psychiatrist and artist
Exhibition duration: 6 Oct - 18 Nov 2017
Vermilion Art at Sydney Contemporary 17
We would like to thank all artists, visitors and Sydney Contemporary Art Fair for the effort and time contributed to make this event a successful and fruitful one.
Being the only gallery which focuses on contemporary Chinese Art among all the 90 representatives, we are proud to be part of “The most dynamic exhibition to be seen in Australia this year”, according to art critic, John McDonald. We joined forces with 11 outstanding/established Chinese artists and brought their works to the international platform of many thousands of people interested in art.
Vermilion Art exhibited a wide range of works at the exhibition that included painting, photography, contemporary paper cutting, sculpture and other materials of art. In additional to the artworks exhibited at the booth, we also presented a unique installation art and performance art set. Sydney based Chinese artist, Tianli Zu’s paper cut work “Nowa is pregnant II" was displayed at the central location of main exhibition hall. This massive artwork brought an unprecedented visual impact to the audience.
Artist Cang Xin’s “Communication" art performance was the highlight of the art fair. His licking performance was fanatically received and well-engaged with the public. Cang Xin made a special trip from Bejing to Sydney to perform for three consecutive days.
A dialogue between Luise Guest, from White Rabbit Collection and leading artist Cang Xin about their first hand experience of the fast-moving world of contemporary Chinese Art has attracted the attention of an engaged audience looking to get more involved in this conversation. The collision of Eastern and Western cultures have certainly stirred up the crowd.
We are extremely grateful with all the positive feedback from the public and media. We sincerely wish to thank Art Fair Australia. We also wish to thank and support our artists Cang Xin, Li Jin, Tianli Zu, Emer Yang, Zhang Xiao, Li Xiaofeng, Peng Yong, Sun Ziyao, Li Jinguo, Hua-chen Huang and Jason Phu.
Being the only gallery which focuses on contemporary Chinese Art among all the 90 representatives, we are proud to be part of “The most dynamic exhibition to be seen in Australia this year”, according to art critic, John McDonald. We joined forces with 11 outstanding/established Chinese artists and brought their works to the international platform of many thousands of people interested in art.
Vermilion Art exhibited a wide range of works at the exhibition that included painting, photography, contemporary paper cutting, sculpture and other materials of art. In additional to the artworks exhibited at the booth, we also presented a unique installation art and performance art set. Sydney based Chinese artist, Tianli Zu’s paper cut work “Nowa is pregnant II" was displayed at the central location of main exhibition hall. This massive artwork brought an unprecedented visual impact to the audience.
Artist Cang Xin’s “Communication" art performance was the highlight of the art fair. His licking performance was fanatically received and well-engaged with the public. Cang Xin made a special trip from Bejing to Sydney to perform for three consecutive days.
A dialogue between Luise Guest, from White Rabbit Collection and leading artist Cang Xin about their first hand experience of the fast-moving world of contemporary Chinese Art has attracted the attention of an engaged audience looking to get more involved in this conversation. The collision of Eastern and Western cultures have certainly stirred up the crowd.
We are extremely grateful with all the positive feedback from the public and media. We sincerely wish to thank Art Fair Australia. We also wish to thank and support our artists Cang Xin, Li Jin, Tianli Zu, Emer Yang, Zhang Xiao, Li Xiaofeng, Peng Yong, Sun Ziyao, Li Jinguo, Hua-chen Huang and Jason Phu.
PRESS RELEASE
VERMILION ART PRESENTS “CHARMING CONFUSION" : A GROUP EXHIBITION CURATED BY LEADING ARTIST GUAN WEI ON 10 AUGUST 2017
VERMILION ART PRESENTS “CHARMING CONFUSION" : A GROUP EXHIBITION CURATED BY LEADING ARTIST GUAN WEI ON 10 AUGUST 2017
Vermilion Art is pleased to present a group exhibition of five diverse artists, with an opening reception at our Walsh Bay gallery at 6:30pm on the evening of the 10th August. Charming Confusion showcases an intimate collection of pieces personally curated by artist Guan Wei.
Charming Confusion is a response when viewers are completely attracted to an image or an object. Works which invoke a charming confusion appeal directly to the intellect through senses and feelings.
Artist/Curator, Guan Wei said: Charming Confusion reflects the output of five very unique artists sharing their experience of living and working in different countries. Be transported between oriental mysticism, philosophical thinking art installation pieces, to playful sculptures colorfully inspired by the grotesque. Art can change our understanding and appreciation of beauty in the world.
The line-up includes Australia's leading contemporary artist Tim Johnson, contemporary "gong bi" (traditional Chinese technique) by master Jin Sha. Witness Gen-Y artist Louise Zhang’s iconic and vibrant pastel palette, 3D Chinese-ink paintings by Yang Xifa and selective works from the well-established myth maker Guan Wei.
In their interactions and collisions with new cultures and ethnic groups, they continue to experience their own interpretations of separateness and assimilation. These artists take an active and experimental approach to the artistic exploration of their new environments. And they have achieved a Charming Confusion.
This exhibition will be opened by Shane Simpson, Shane is Chairman of the Bundanon Trust, the Advisory Council of the Faculty of Art + Design, UNSW and Studio A.
Charming Confusion will run through 23rd September 2017. The artists, Guan Wei, Tim Johnson, Yang Xifa and Louise Zhang will be present at the opening reception Thursday, August 10th from 6.30 – 8pm. Gallery hours are Wednesday – Saturday 11-6pm, and by appointment.
Charming Confusion is a response when viewers are completely attracted to an image or an object. Works which invoke a charming confusion appeal directly to the intellect through senses and feelings.
Artist/Curator, Guan Wei said: Charming Confusion reflects the output of five very unique artists sharing their experience of living and working in different countries. Be transported between oriental mysticism, philosophical thinking art installation pieces, to playful sculptures colorfully inspired by the grotesque. Art can change our understanding and appreciation of beauty in the world.
The line-up includes Australia's leading contemporary artist Tim Johnson, contemporary "gong bi" (traditional Chinese technique) by master Jin Sha. Witness Gen-Y artist Louise Zhang’s iconic and vibrant pastel palette, 3D Chinese-ink paintings by Yang Xifa and selective works from the well-established myth maker Guan Wei.
In their interactions and collisions with new cultures and ethnic groups, they continue to experience their own interpretations of separateness and assimilation. These artists take an active and experimental approach to the artistic exploration of their new environments. And they have achieved a Charming Confusion.
This exhibition will be opened by Shane Simpson, Shane is Chairman of the Bundanon Trust, the Advisory Council of the Faculty of Art + Design, UNSW and Studio A.
Charming Confusion will run through 23rd September 2017. The artists, Guan Wei, Tim Johnson, Yang Xifa and Louise Zhang will be present at the opening reception Thursday, August 10th from 6.30 – 8pm. Gallery hours are Wednesday – Saturday 11-6pm, and by appointment.
Art crosses language barrier: Tim Storrier & Liu Haichen
Two artists from different culture backgrounds yet both share a common language through art in dealing with themes like fire.
Opening of Flash Point 燃点 by Michael Kempson, the master printer
Exhibition duration: 29 Jun - 5 Aug 2017
Linda Jaivin's opening speech for Hutong is now "live"
Check out the link below.
http://chinaheritage.net/journal/alleys-end-beijing-hutong-衚衕/
http://chinaheritage.net/journal/alleys-end-beijing-hutong-衚衕/
Opening of Hutong by Linda Jaivin
Exhibition Duration: 5 May - 10 June 2017
Opening of Brave Heart by Geoff Raby, former China ambassador and collector; Phoebe Alexander (ex-SBS journalist) in conversation about contemporary Chinese art
Exhibition Duration: 10 Mar - 22 Apr 2017
Exhibition Duration: 10 Mar - 22 Apr 2017
Ji吉 was opened by Edmund Capon, the former Director of the Art Gallery of NSW (1978-2011) and the Chair of the Board of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
Exhibition duration: 25 Jan. - 11 Feb 2017
Exhibition duration: 25 Jan. - 11 Feb 2017
2016
Opening of Spare Moments
Exhibition duration: 9 - 23 Dec 2016
Exhibition duration: 9 - 23 Dec 2016
Two Voices
Opening Speech by Luise Guest
Two Voices - INTENSE reduction was opened by Luise Guest, Director of Education and Research for White Rabbit Collection
Curated by Tony Scott
Exhibition duration: 21 October - 26 November
Foreshadow Performance Art by Tianli Zu
Foreshadow is an exhibition of works by three established artists Guan Wei, Yang Xifa and Tianli Zu. The exhibition includes video work, paintings, sculptures and contemporary papercuts.
As part of this exhibition, we would like to present you something new - Performance art by Tianli Zu. Tianli will engage the audience in a silent dialogue through drawing and paper cutting. All participants can keep their artworks after performance art. No particular skills required.
As part of this exhibition, we would like to present you something new - Performance art by Tianli Zu. Tianli will engage the audience in a silent dialogue through drawing and paper cutting. All participants can keep their artworks after performance art. No particular skills required.
Guan Wei, Yang Xifa, Tianli Zu : Foreshadow was opened by Mikala Tai, director of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
Exhibition duration: 5 August - 10 September
Curator Guan Wei's comments on 'Ink Instinct'
Ink Instinct, Sun Ziyao's first solo exhibition in Australia was opened by Dr Richard Wu
Co-curated by Yeqin Zuo and Guan Wei
Exhibition duration: 17 June - 23 July
White Rabbit: Heavy Artillery & Cang Xin: Something from Nothing
John McDonald | The Sydney Morning Herald May 20, 2016
The current show, Something from Nothing, features paintings, sculptures and video by Cang Xin, who readers may remember as the artist who went around the world licking famous monuments. He was also part of the mound of naked flesh called To Add One Metre to an Anonymous Mountain (1995) that has become an iconic image for the new Chinese art.
Cang Xin is a philosophical artist with a long-standing interest in Shamanism, which posits underlying relationships between all life forms. This has resulted in a series in which the artist has painted himself into copies of Old Master paintings, along with overscaled seeds and plants. These are highly eccentric exercises to Western and Chinese eyes, but Cang Xin has never aspired to be part of the mainstream. His work is a personal quest that has taken him far away from the monumental ambitions of Chinese communism or capitalism. Who needs Mao or designer labels when you're searching for the origins of life?
The current show, Something from Nothing, features paintings, sculptures and video by Cang Xin, who readers may remember as the artist who went around the world licking famous monuments. He was also part of the mound of naked flesh called To Add One Metre to an Anonymous Mountain (1995) that has become an iconic image for the new Chinese art.
Cang Xin is a philosophical artist with a long-standing interest in Shamanism, which posits underlying relationships between all life forms. This has resulted in a series in which the artist has painted himself into copies of Old Master paintings, along with overscaled seeds and plants. These are highly eccentric exercises to Western and Chinese eyes, but Cang Xin has never aspired to be part of the mainstream. His work is a personal quest that has taken him far away from the monumental ambitions of Chinese communism or capitalism. Who needs Mao or designer labels when you're searching for the origins of life?
Something from Nothing, leading contemporary Chinese artist Cang Xin's first solo exhibition in Australia was opened by Dr Anna Davis, curator of MCA
Exhibition duration: 22nd April - 28th May
Peng Yong 彭勇
Urban Imprint 城式
11th March- 16th April
Contemporary Chinese Printmaking | Artist talk
Urban Imprint opening by Dr Elizabeth Farrelly was launched
Exhibition duration: 11th March - 16th April
A solo exhibition of young Chinese printmaking artist Peng Yong.
A solo exhibition of young Chinese printmaking artist Peng Yong.
Tea with Chinese Star Photographer Zhang Xiao 张晓
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2:30 - 4:00 pm, Saturday 20th February
Venue: Vermilion Art 5/16 Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay Free Chinese tea and snacks will be available. Zhang Xiao is visiting Sydney briefly during his first solo exhibition in Australia, The Road Home, now showing at Vermilion Art in Walsh Bay Sydney. Zhang Xiao is the winner of the prestigious Three Shadows Photography Award , Beijing 2009, The 1st place at the Photography Talent Awards (France) in 2010 and the Prix HSBC Pour la Photographie, France 2011. You will have opportunities to view and discuss the exhibition with Zhang Xiao. The Guardian article about Zhang Xiao Zhang Xiao's artworks More information: www.vermilionart.com.au Zhang Xiao – The Road Home 5th February – 5th March |
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The Motivational Benefits Of Art In The Workplace
by Victor Lipman JUL 31, 2014|Forbes/Leadership
I recently read a thought-provoking article, via Twitter TWTR +10.97%, called Having Fine Art in the Workplace is Good for Productivity. That may be a debatable point – I’m not sure it’s easy to calculate a classic ROI from having art in the workplace – but I do believe you can (very roughly) estimate what I call ROE, Return on Environment, as there are subtle but valuable benefits workplace art can bring to a corporate culture.
The article noted above was written by Andre Smith as a guest blog for someone I follow on Twitter, Marissa Brassfield, who goes by the Twitter handle of@efficient. A simple clear-headed focus on efficiency and productivity appeals to me. After all, is there anyone in management who can’t benefit from being more efficient?
I did some research on the benefits of art at work, and the reasons commonly cited for having it involve:
Boosting creativity – It can interest and inspire certain artistically oriented individuals who will find the artwork a pleasure to be around.
Helping reduce stress – The relaxing, contemplative aspects of art can help lower the stress levels of what we all recognize can be a high-stress setting.
Zhang Xiao solo exhibitionThe Road Home was launched
Exhibition duration: 5th February - 5th March
The Road Home is our Chinese New Year exhibition. It is the first solo exhibition of multi-awards winner Chinese photographic artist Zhang Xiao in Australia.
The Road Home is our Chinese New Year exhibition. It is the first solo exhibition of multi-awards winner Chinese photographic artist Zhang Xiao in Australia.
Chinese New Year Contemporary Art Exhibition
ZHANG XIAO, The Road Home
Vermilion Art Gallery is celebrating Chinese New Year with something new - the opening of The Road Home opens on 5th February. It will be the first solo exhibition in Australia by multiple award winning photographic artist Zhang Xiao.
It has been 40 years since China opened its doors to the world in 1976. Profound social and economic changes have shaken Chinese life and culture.
“We often hear news about Beijing, Shanghai and other big cities in China. Villages are for most Chinese people where their roots are to be found. Zhang Xiao has recorded some poignant moments in the lives of ordinary people as they navigate the rapidly changing world around them.” says Dr Yeqin Zuo, gallery director at Vermilion Art.
Zhang Xiao was trained as an architect and worked as a photo-journalist before he became a photographic artist. He is the recipient of several awards including the prestigious Three Shadows Photography Award, Beijing 2009, First place in the Photography Talent Awards (France) in 2010 and the Prix HSBC Pour la Photographie, France 2011.
Vermilion Art is the first commercial gallery primarily focusing on contemporary Chinese art. The Walsh Bay gallery opened in late 2015 and this is their solo exhibition.
Vermilion Art exhibits and trades in a range of contemporary Chinese artworks catering to Australian and Chinese collectors and audiences.
The Road Home exhibition will open from 5th February to 5th March 2016.
It has been 40 years since China opened its doors to the world in 1976. Profound social and economic changes have shaken Chinese life and culture.
“We often hear news about Beijing, Shanghai and other big cities in China. Villages are for most Chinese people where their roots are to be found. Zhang Xiao has recorded some poignant moments in the lives of ordinary people as they navigate the rapidly changing world around them.” says Dr Yeqin Zuo, gallery director at Vermilion Art.
Zhang Xiao was trained as an architect and worked as a photo-journalist before he became a photographic artist. He is the recipient of several awards including the prestigious Three Shadows Photography Award, Beijing 2009, First place in the Photography Talent Awards (France) in 2010 and the Prix HSBC Pour la Photographie, France 2011.
Vermilion Art is the first commercial gallery primarily focusing on contemporary Chinese art. The Walsh Bay gallery opened in late 2015 and this is their solo exhibition.
Vermilion Art exhibits and trades in a range of contemporary Chinese artworks catering to Australian and Chinese collectors and audiences.
The Road Home exhibition will open from 5th February to 5th March 2016.
2015
Cloud 30 Christmas Drinks & Wang Yunyun's Small Landscapes
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Event：Cloud 30 Christmas Drinks & Wang Yunyun's Small
Landscapes Date: 6:30pm, Thursday 17th December Venue: Vermilion Art 5/16 Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay Warm greetings to you for the festive season. A heartfelt thanks to all our friends who helped and supported Vermilion Art’s inaugural exhibition Beijing Calling. Your interest and contribution have given us a strong start. We are delighted to invite you to join us for Cloud 30 Christmas Drinks. We will have on show recent works by contemporaryink artist Wang Yunyun. This also could be a perfect opportunity to look for a special Christmas gift. All paintings for sale are under $500. |
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Chinese Art in conversation
Vermilion Art & ACBC special event 12th Dec, 2015
The Australia China Business Council and Vermilion Art organised a special event with leading Australian Chinese artist Guan Wei and Director of Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation Dr. Gene Sherman (AM).
Zhang Xiao, Shaanxi No.2, Giclee, 80x80cm
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BEIJING CALLING – and not to talk real estateRichard Tulloch, 10 NOV, 2015
China is in the news every day in Sydney. Nearly every story is about economics. “Slowing Chinese demand ends Australia’s resources boom,” “Sydney real estate unaffordable thanks to Chinese investment,” scream the headlines. We hear little about Chinese art and culture and the way it reflects the fast changing face of modern China. Dr Yeqin Zou is determined to change that, opening a new Sydney gallery dedicated to cutting edge Chinese art. |
Talk by artist and curator Cang Xin
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Vermilion Art artist Cang Xin was invited to give a presentation at the New South Wales Art Gallery on 3rd November. Cang Xin and the Director of Vermilion Art Dr Yeqin Zuo met the Deputy Director and Director of Collection Ms. Suhanya Raffel and the Curator Chinese Art Yin Cao of NSWAG. They exchanged views on the recent development of contemporary Chinese art.
Cang Xin, one of the pioneers of contemporary Chinese art, gave a comprehensive presentation on his journey from a performance artist to one of the leading contemporary Chinese artists using a range art media including painting, installation, and sculptures. |
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Vermilion Art Opening Night
The first exhibition Beijing Calling is on 30th October to 12th December 2015
Vermilion Art: Sydney’s first-of-kind contemporary Chinese art specialist
The plaudits for contemporary Chinese art may not be on the par with the country’s global economic ascendancy but Sydney’s newest gallery, Vermilion Art, aims to change this.
Based in the cultural hub of Walsh Bay, Vermilion Art is the first commercial gallery in the harbour city focused primarily on contemporary Chinese art.
“Sometimes it seems like all we ever hear about China is its increasing influence as an economic power,” Dr Yeqin Zuo, gallery director at Vermilion Art, says.
“What is missing are the stories about contemporary Chinese culture and art. We hope to help Australian audiences bridge this gap. ”
The first step in this process is the Hickson Road gallery’s opening on October 29.
Vermilion Art will exhibit and trade in a range of diverse artworks catering to Australian and Chinese collectors as well as anyone with an interest in the exceptional skill and diversity of China’s contemporary artists.
Likened to Paris in 1900 and New York in the 1950s, Beijing’s increasing importance as a cultural and artistic centre is at the core of Vermilion’s opening exhibition - Beijing Calling.
Curated by Dr Zuo alongside one of the leading artists, Guan Wei, the exhibition is an opportunity for Australian audiences to gain insight into the vibrancy of the contemporary art scene in Beijing.
Showcasing works such as painting, print, ceramic and photography the exhibit features nine unique artists from the city including; Guan Wei, Cang Xin, Zhang Xiao, Han Qing, Li Di, Li Tianyuan, Emer Yang, Wang Yunyun and Peng Yong.
Heading up Vermilion Art’s bicultural team, all passionate about Chinese art and culture, Dr Zuo is hoping the new gallery will be a platform for emerging and established Chinese artists to show their work in Sydney.
“We are looking forward to filling what is more of a void than a gap in the Australian market for contemporary Chinese art.” she says.
“Alongside the exceptional quality of the art, the main point of difference is our staff and their expert, insider knowledge of contemporary Chinese art and artists.”
Based in the cultural hub of Walsh Bay, Vermilion Art is the first commercial gallery in the harbour city focused primarily on contemporary Chinese art.
“Sometimes it seems like all we ever hear about China is its increasing influence as an economic power,” Dr Yeqin Zuo, gallery director at Vermilion Art, says.
“What is missing are the stories about contemporary Chinese culture and art. We hope to help Australian audiences bridge this gap. ”
The first step in this process is the Hickson Road gallery’s opening on October 29.
Vermilion Art will exhibit and trade in a range of diverse artworks catering to Australian and Chinese collectors as well as anyone with an interest in the exceptional skill and diversity of China’s contemporary artists.
Likened to Paris in 1900 and New York in the 1950s, Beijing’s increasing importance as a cultural and artistic centre is at the core of Vermilion’s opening exhibition - Beijing Calling.
Curated by Dr Zuo alongside one of the leading artists, Guan Wei, the exhibition is an opportunity for Australian audiences to gain insight into the vibrancy of the contemporary art scene in Beijing.
Showcasing works such as painting, print, ceramic and photography the exhibit features nine unique artists from the city including; Guan Wei, Cang Xin, Zhang Xiao, Han Qing, Li Di, Li Tianyuan, Emer Yang, Wang Yunyun and Peng Yong.
Heading up Vermilion Art’s bicultural team, all passionate about Chinese art and culture, Dr Zuo is hoping the new gallery will be a platform for emerging and established Chinese artists to show their work in Sydney.
“We are looking forward to filling what is more of a void than a gap in the Australian market for contemporary Chinese art.” she says.
“Alongside the exceptional quality of the art, the main point of difference is our staff and their expert, insider knowledge of contemporary Chinese art and artists.”
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