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The Contemporary Chinese art scene is vibrant, enthusiastic and economically booming—echoing the general situation in China. In the last 20 years, art from China has confounded the expectations of the international art community, as the content expressed in these art works is no longer subservient solely to the aims of the governmental and social agenda. It also forces many to suspend their previous assumptions on China in favor of the more important questions it raises, such as how “modernity” is defined within Chinese terms. |
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A Beautiful Anomaly – Jennifer Lin
The Contemporary Chinese art scene is vibrant, enthusiastic and economically booming—echoing the general situation in China. In the last 20 years, art from China has confounded the expectations of the international art community, as the content expressed in these art works is no longer subservient solely to the aims of the governmental and social agenda. It also forces many to suspend their previous assumptions on China in favor of the more important questions it raises, such as how “modernity” is defined within Chinese terms.
The Chinese artist is on the cusp of being a fully autonomous agent and his art is a medium through which he can express his creative faculty, voice and ideas. However, despite New China’s progressive and ever expanding views on what is appropriate in artistic expression, the Chinese art scene is still indisputably an anomaly. For the contemporary Chinese artist, a sense of tradition is still very much innate, yet modernity beckons and seduces. Contemporary Chinese art is liminal and evolving caught between two worlds with a driving momentum to evolve ever more artistically and socially significant forms.
From the beginning of this great transitional period in Chinese art, Red Gate Gallery (founded in 1991 by Australian Brian Wallace) has been exhibiting the work of internationally recognized Chinese artists. The gallery is situated at the extraordinary Dongbianmen Watchtower, which is, in itself, a remarkable testament to the beauty of traditional Chinese architecture. Art at the Red Gate often explores and articulates upon such pertinent social topics as economic development, gender, sexuality and the environment, which are themes important to both contemporary China and the global community at large. The gallery has, since 1991, exhibited a minimum of eight solo events per year, punctuated by guest-curated exhibitions from China and abroad. Now celebrating its 15th anniversary, Red Gate Gallery is resolutely established as one of the leading contemporary art galleries in China.
Over the last 15 years, the gallery has consistently staged its exhibitions with remarkable variety and flair. The program at the Red Gate has challenged monotony and complacency by illuminating the great diversity of theme, narration and technique currently evident amongst contemporary Chinese artists. The gallery represents prominent Chinese artists who reflect the constantly changing art movements emerging from the now cosmopolitan cities of China.
Tan Ping is a Chinese artist whose works reflect his knowledge and affinity for European artistic styles. As a Red Gate artist his printmaking is highly popular amongst collectors and institutions for its sophisticated abstraction purity of line, form and colour is highly attractive to western sensibilities. Considering his mastery of European techniques, it is not surprising that he graduated from not only the Beijing Central Academy of Fine arts in 1984 but also gained his Masters of Arts from the Free Art Department of the Kunst de Hochschule, in Berlin in 1994 after being awarded a West German Cultural Exchange Scholarship. Although Tan Ping’s work, especially his latest series of “Untitled” woodblock prints, ostensibly uses Western techniques, he surprises us by incorporating within his work an instinctive Chinese aesthetic. His sensitive use of line is reminiscent of the spirit of Chinese calligraphy. Tan Ping’s art is a testament to the beauty of austerity and purity. Experiencing his art is highly personal; the abstract nature of his works invites a multitude of individual and emotive interpretations.
Chi Peng, another artist represented by Red Gate Gallery, resides on the opposite spectrum of contemporary Chinese art. Chi Peng’s most recent collection of manipulated photography, entitled “I Fuck Me,” reveals that he is indeed an “agent provocateur.” His photography is likely to appeal to the more daring of art collectors. His latest series of work consists of the nude artist himself, who with his doppelganger is risking ridicule and outrage for sexual trysts in public spaces in Beijing (such as a telephone booth or a public bathroom). The comfort in which Chi Peng displays his nude body is an assertive statement on Chinese society. His photography is political in that it challenges prevailing attitudes towards sexuality, decorum and the limitations of artistic expression. He belongs to the newest generation of Chinese artists, for whom the body is a site of celebration, rather than humiliation.
From these two artists and indeed a vast and ever-growing number of Chinese artists and writers, the incredible diversity of Chinese art is made apparent. The complexity and diversity which is beyond simple categorizations facilitates a wonderful dialogue between contemporary Chinese society and the all encroaching monolith of international globalization. Contemporary art in China is indeed a beautiful anomaly.
