Yang Xinguang (born 1980), There Are Stones Below, 2011, iron, wire, plywood and stone, 47 1/4 x 47 1/4 x 21 5/8 inches
The Hillstrom Museum of Art at Gustavus Adolphus College will open its 2014-15 season of exhibitions with Pull Left—Not Always Right: Emerging Contemporary Artists in China. The exhibition will be on view Sept. 22 through Nov. 9, 2014, with an opening reception starting at 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 22. A separate reception will take place during the Nobel Conference from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7.
Pull Left—Not Always Right highlights fifteen young Chinese artists, working in a wide variety of media and styles, who have become global art makers and who reflect on everyday life in their art. Works included in the exhibit break away from traditional forms of contemporary Chinese art and represent a generation of younger Chinese artists engaging in personal and conceptual projects, generated in a global environment.
Pull Left, which began a U. S. tour this summer, was organized by Taikang Space (located in the Caochangdi artist district in Beijing), a non-profit organization devoted to research on and the promotion of contemporary Chinese art. Taikang Space was named “Best Art Organization of the Year” for 2013 by the TANC ASIA Prize of The Art Newspaper Hong Kong, for its development of contemporary art in China.
Recent important initiatives in Chinese contemporary art include major exhibitions at Western museums such as the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, both held late 2013 to early 2014, and a new program for acquiring contemporary Chinese works for the collection of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, initiated in 2013. Pull Left is part of this current trend, but it differs from other efforts in highlighting artists who are less than 40 years old.
The exhibit was organized for Taikang Space by Tang Xin, Director, Su Wenxiang, Senior Curator (and artist), Xu Chongbao, Curator, and Li Chao, Guest Curator (and Associate Professor of Ceramic Art at Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute). A major portion of the costs for Pull Left were provided by Taikang Life Insurance, including shipping of artworks from China and the publication of the illustrated catalogue that accompanies the exhibit. The appearance of Pull Left at the Hillstrom Museum of Art is supported by a generous grant from the Carl and Verna Schmidt Foundation.
Artists in the exhibition include: Cai Dongdong (born 1978), Gao Weigang (born 1976), Hu Xiangqian (born 1983), Liu Chuang (born 1978), Liu Xinyi (born 1982), Ma Qiusha (born 1982), Qiu Xiaofei (born 1977), Su Wenxiang (born 1979), Wang Sishun (born 1979), Wang Yuyang (born 1979), Xie Molin (born 1979), Yan Bing (born 1980), Yang Xinguang (born 1980), Zhang Shujian (born 1987), and Zhao Zhao (born 1982).
Admission to the Hillstrom Museum of Art, including all receptions and special events, is free and open to the public. Regular Museum hours 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, and 1 to 5 p.m. on weekends. Please visit the Museum’s website at gustavus.edu/finearts/hillstrom for further information.
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Media Contact: Director of Media Relations and Internal Communication Luc Hatlestad
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