Home / News / INK REMIX: Contemporary art from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong

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Description of Exhibition Contemporary ink art has emerged as one of the most important artistic trends in recent years in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and internationally it is promoted as “the new Chinese art”. Traditionally, ink is associated with Chinese literati painting and calligraphy, but now contemporary artists across the region are re-interpreting and subverting this artistic genre, using it as a medium of expression to engage with issues that have local and global significance. In societies that have undergone rapid socio-economic and cultural change, artists are turning to the past to make sense of the present and are forging new directions – and ink art is the embodiment of this cultural turn. Ink Remix offers new ways of thinking about ink as a contemporary art form that is being radically transformed. The exhibition features works in a range of media, including painting, photography, video and animation, produced by emerging and established artists living and working in the region. The exhibition highlights these artists’ diverse artistic approaches, and their distinctive regional and individual perspectives. Focusing on works by artists born between the 1960s and 1980s, Ink Remix emphasizes the new, innovative and multifaceted aspects of ink art. This is the first exhibition presented in Australia that focuses on this significant artistic trend and that features works from Mainland China, as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong - locations that have played an important role in the development of ink art but which are often overlooked in such exhibitions. The exhibition will feature approximately 30 works by 15 emerging as well as established artists from across the region. Their works explore themes relating to history, and the effects of modernisation, urbanisation and globalisation on their respective societies and cultures, and on conceptions of identity and place in the world. For further information about the artists and their works please contact the Exhibition Curator (see details p.2). Organising Institution and Curator The Canberra Museum and Gallery (CMAG), is a public art museum located in Australia’s capital city. It presents a continuous program of local, national and international exhibitions and manages a collection that has national significance. CMAG has a charter to provide the wider community with a selective program of high quality exhibitions and it delivers public programs that engage a local audience, as well as interstate and international visitors to the capital. Dr. Sophie McIntyre is a scholar and curator with more than 20 years experience in the field of Chinese art. She lived in Mainland China and Taiwan, and has published widely and curated numerous exhibitions from this region. These include: Penumbra: New Media Art from Taiwan (2007); Concrete Horizons: Contemporary Art from China (2004); and Face to Face: Contemporary Art from Taiwan (1999-2000) which toured Australia and New Zealand. 1 Exhibition Opening and Touring Dates The exhibition will open at the Canberra Museum and Gallery (CMAG) and be presented from 4 July - 18 October 2015. It will tour to venues across Australia from the end of 2015 and during 2016. Exhibition Partners & Supporters The ACT Government and the Australian Centre for China in the World (CIW) at the Australian National University (ANU) have provided funding for the development and research component of the exhibition. CMAG has a long-standing involvement with the ANU, and it has formed partnerships with the School of Art and with relevant departments across the university which are assisting in the development and delivery of the exhibition and its public programs. Education & Support Materials The exhibition is designed to generate opportunities for learning and interdisciplinary research, and for community engagement. It engages with themes and issues relating directly to China’s history, language, and culture, but that have wider applicability to disciplines including Asian Studies, anthropology, cultural studies, environmental and urban planning, and philosophy. The exhibition will be accompanied by a curriculum-relevant education kit that will target primary, secondary and tertiary students. Publication Funding support has been received from the ACT Government to produce a full colour exhibition catalogue which will include essays by the curator and leading international scholars in the field. The catalogue will critically engage with the key themes and ideas explored in the exhibition and it will make an important contribution to scholarship in this field.

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