In Ink: Current Trends of Ink Art

NanHai Art is pleased to present In Ink: Current Trends of Ink Art, a group exhibition featuring 34 contemporary ink artists from both China and the US. This exhibition will be open in conjunction with the 2019 Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Ink art represents a cultural value, is an attitude to and an understanding of life, nature, and the world. Since the beginning of the last century, along with the dramatic changes in society, ink art has also been in the process of rethinking, reexamining, and renovation. Especially in the past few decades, facing the strong challenge of contemporary artistic concepts, ink artists use their unique artistic language to express their concerns in life, and to pose questions to both tradition and modernity. Their works, regardless of conceptual approach or visual discourse have developed in the context of contemporary life, and, as with other forms of Chinese art today, represent the contemporaneity of society and culture. Now, ink art has already become an important and inseparable part of contemporary Chinese art. We can see that all artists confidently display their visual experience, describe their personal perceptions, express their concerns in life, explore their spiritual aspirations, and raise questions about both tradition and modernity in a much broader contemporary cultural discourse. 

An eponymous symposium, co-hosted by NanHai Art, The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and Christie’s, will open the exhibition and kick off the fifth edition of Asia Week SFBA on October 5 from 2–5:30pm. Featuring speakers and panelists include: Abby Chen (Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Asian Art Museum); Katherine Don (Head of Arts & Cultural Development, Asia Society Hong Kong); Kuiyi Shen (University of California San Diego); Richard Vine (Managing Editor of Art in America); Chun Chen Wang(Deputy Director of CAFA Art Museum, China); moderated by Julia F. Andrews (The Ohio State University).

Seating is limited. Please find out more details and RSVP here

Exhibiting artists: Cai Guangbin / Arnold Chang / Michael Cherney / Du Songru / Fong Chung-Ray / Gao Qian / He Kunlin / Hou Beiren / Li Jin / Li Tingting / Lin Yan / Liu Guosong / Liu Qinghe / Lu Chuntao / Lu Fusheng / Qiu Deshu / Qiu Ting / Ming Ren / Shen Chen / Wang Dongling / Wang Jinsong / Wang Tiande / Wei Jia / Xie Xiaoze / Xu Hualing / Hong Chun Zhang / Stella Zhang / Zhang Suojia / Zhang Yanzi / Zhang Zhengmin / Zheng Chongbin  / Zhong Yueying / Zhou Shilin 

About the curator
Kuiyi Shen is Professor of Asian Art History, Theory, and Criticism, Vice Chair and Director of PhD Program. His teaching and writing focuses on Chinese and Japanese art with an emphasis on modern and contemporary Chinese art and Sino-Japanese art exchanges in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is a recipient of fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Social Science Research Council, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Stanford University, University of California, and Leiden University. Shen has also worked as a curator and curatorial consultant for projects including Literature in Line (Ohio State University, 1997), A Century in Crisis, the modern portion of China, 5000 Years (Guggenheim Museum SoHo and Guggenheim Museum ilbao, 1998), Word and Meaning (SUNY Buffalo and Ohio University, 2000–01), Chongqing Chilis (Ohio University, Wellesley College, Ohio State University, and Miami University, 2003–04), and Landscapes (Shanghai Gallery of Art, 2004), Chinese Painting on the Eve of the Communist Revolution (Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, 2006), Reboot-The Third Chengdu Biennale (Chengdu Modern Art Museum, 2007)