China Arte Brazil Begins in Sao Paulo

Report by Santanu Ganguly: “China Arte Brazil” exhibition kicked off in OCA, Sao Paulo, Brazil on April 10, and will continue till May 5, 2014. Curator Ma Lin and Tereza de Arruda organized the exhibition that will present over 110 works by 62 artists.

Ma Lin Section Artists List: He Chengyao,  Huang Jun, Li Shan, Li Yifan, Li Zhouwei, Liu Yongtao, Mou Huan, Ni Weihua, Qu Yan, Song Gang, Wang Jingsong, Wang Nanming, Wang Xiaosong, Wong Shun-kit, Wu Song, XU Weixin, Yang Kai, Yang Qian, Zhang Minjie, Zhang Jian-jun, Zhang Xiaotao.

Date: April 14-May 18， 2014

Venue: OCA， Sao Paulo

Organizer: Brazil Ministry of Culture, G11

Sponsor: HSBC Bank, Brazil

The Chinese Contemporary Art Landscape is complex, built from the dual influences of China’s own cultural background and trends in Western Art. How should we interpret Chinese contemporary art? How should we evaluate Western critiques of Chinese Contemporary art? In the Chinese art world, these questions are being rethought and discussed. Now, as the concept of “Chinese symbol” has been accepted internationally, the task of finding artists whose works extend beyond “Chinese Symbol” has been undertaken by only few curators and art critics in China. Of course, we can’t use one label to summarize all of Chinese Contemporary art, but can only provide a selection of Chinese Contemporary Art since 2000.

Through my curating section, I select 21 Artists for the China Arte Brazil exhibition, the theme is “Chinese Contemporary Art after 2000” and present with three parts. 

Part 1 “Art intervenes in Society” take Artist Wang Jingsong, Ni Weihua, Li Yifan, Qu Yan, Wang Nanming, He Chengyao, Xu Weixin and Zhang Minjie’s work as example, focus on talk about how the artists look for new art in  non-art, How the artists broke the boundary of art and present social problems throughout their works?

Part 2 “History, Memory and Future” through Li Shan, Zhang Jian-jun, Zhang Xiaotao and Song Gang different subject and artworks, from the imagination of the future, historical and current memory explore problems that people have overlooked.

Part 3 “ Image and Form” from different New Paintings and angles, such as Wong Shun-kit, Yang Qian, Huangjun, Mou Huan, Wu Song, Wang Xiaosong, Yang Kai, Li Zhouwei, Liu Yongtao’s works, discuss post-abstractionism, images, graffiti, strokes and other issues. The 21 artists in this exhibition are only examples of the development of Chinese contemporary art. Because of their different academic backgrounds, they show differences  creative tendencies in their works on the same theme.