Preamble

What did President Richard Nixon and Andy Warhol know that the rest of us missed back in 1971-72? Being only 22 years old and studying medicine 24-7, I think I deserve a pass - but what about everyone else?

The answer lies in two historic images. One of President Nixon shaking hands with Mao Tse-Tung and the other is from a series of Warhol’s Mao paintings. Namely, that United States of America had to make a serious effort to engage the world’s most populated country. And by engaging China, despite its communist ways, the relationship helped in the following decade to end Soviet totalitarianism and dissolve the Soviet Union.

So what is it that some recognize in Chinese Contemporary Art that the rest of Miami is missing? The answer: with over 5000 years of continuous civilization combined past 50 years, China’s contemporary art production is destined to play a major role in the history of the art of our time.

For those who think Chinese art is a fad, you are wrong. This year China surpassed the United States, Great Britain, and France to become the #1 art market in the world. For those who think it is too market oriented and is all about prices, wrong again. Whatever you think about the subject matter, the concept and rendering of many of the important Chinese contemporary artists’ works are superior to much of the art production around the world.

Access to China

A three-part exhibition sponsored by International Chinese Fine Arts Council, Art Lexing and the Miami Design District

Venue: Buena Vista Building Space 120

             180 NE 39th Street

             Miami, FL 33137

The Feminine Flair, curated by Lexing Zhang

Displaying the work of Ye Hongxing, Wang Xiaojin and Art Lexing

Emerging Art on Paper, curated by Inez Suen

Recent graduates from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou

Chinese Iconography on Porcelain

Frank Tse Collection

Access to China exhibition will be open until the end of May

A young not-for-profit organization, known as the International Chinese Fine Arts Council, established in Chicago, founded an outpost in Miami last year with Director, Inez Suen at its helm. A native of Chicago by way of Taipei, Taiwan, Suen moved to Miami in 2010 from New York City because of Miami’s connection to Art Basel-Miami Beach and the dearth of Asian art in Miami. ICFAC exhibited both crafts and fine art from Taiwan in Miami during Art Basel 2010, and has a new exhibition in partnership with Art Lexing through the end of May entitled, “Access to China”.

There are many factors contributing to the explosion of Chinese contemporary art onto the international contemporary art scene since 2006-2007. Among them include the international recognition of Chinese Contemporary artists; the economic success of the Chinese economy and the growing number of wealthy Chinese; focus on Chinese Contemporary art by auction houses; support of the Chinese government in organizing exhibitions and permitting freedom of artistic expression.

The curated exhibition by Suen and Zhang has a distinctive feminine sensibility with the combination of porcelain iconography along with paintings by two young emerging artists, one woman and one man, both of whom paint women.

Art works displayed during a Traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony
1.) Bo Yun, Autumn wind, 2010, Oil on canvas, 100x120 cm (40x48 in)
2.) Han Lei, A man who plays the clown, photograph, 120x94 cm (47x37 in)
3.) Ye Hongxing, Brilliant Color – Love Infatuation No.8, 2010, Oil on canvas, 150x150 cm (60x60 in)
4.) Ye Hongxing, Misty No. 4, 2010, Oil on canvas, 150x150 cm (60x60 in)

Ye Hongxing uses traditional Chinese motifs along with traditional Chinese porcelain decorative patterns in her paintings which very much complement the Frank Tse Porcelain Collection. All of Hongxing’s paintings on view are “self-portraits” where the artist’s face blends into the background of the decorative motif. This “blending” into the background is a recurrent theme in the Chinese Contemporary Art .

The works by Wang Xiaojin remind me of how much the Chinese, and in particular, even the young artists today, respect tradition in Chinese society. This sensibility contrasts with a common American view, one expressed by one of our forefathers Thomas Jefferson, which espouses the belief the earth belongs to the living.

1.) Ye Hongxing, Misty No. 3, 2010, Oil on canvas, 150x150 cm (60x60 in)
2.) Ye Hongxing, Osmosis No. 4, 2009, Oil on canvas, 150x150 cm (60x60 in)
3.) Wang Xiaojin, Let life be beautiful like summer flowers, 2006, Oil on canvas, 200x70 cm (80x28 in)
4.) Wang Xiaojin, Golden fruit of memory, 2009, Oil on canvas, 180x180 cm (72x72 in)

America, while respecting the past, is a culture which is constantly pushing boundaries and forging new ground; this cultural tradition is perhaps reflective of our artistic output which seems to continually be stretching “out of the box” thinking. Nevertheless, as noted in Xiaojin’s artist statement, he is inspired by the distant past in which ornate porcelain vases, with elaborate flower arrangements, embroidered silk dresses, modish furniture serve to create the opulent world in which being “feminine” typified a woman’s existence.

However, this work provides a cautionary note to this generation of ambitious young artists. Namely, that the international contemporary art world is just that, “international”. Those who wish to be the next Picasso will need to find a visual language that is innovative rather than derivative. The successful Chinese contemporary artists will be those who have not only considered the past but those who think beyond the past and into the present and future. Likewise, American artists, and those with a western orientation, need to recognize that there are limits to what art connoisseurs will accept as art. It is not those sitting in the auction rooms today who will decide, but those of successive generations. They will be the arbitrars of what is considered the important art of our time.