The Armory Show, New York, March 6-9, 2014
Booth #542
Pier 94 - Focus: China
New York
New York City – Beijing-based Ink Studio, the only gallery in the world exclusively devoted to contemporary Chinese ink art, is honored to be among the galleries selected for the 2014 New York Armory Show Focus section, which features China for the first time.
The most compelling current trend in Chinese art is contemporary ink art, which is the subject of a major ongoing exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China as well as recent exhibitions at the British Museum (2012), Saatchi Gallery (2012) and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (2010). Many major artists, collectors, and galleries believe this field has potential to direct China's deep and rich philosophical and cultural history into the contemporary discourse on global art and culture.
Ink Studio's founding Artistic Director Dr. Britta Erickson is one of the most important and respected scholars of contemporary Chinese art, and specializes in contemporary ink art. Dr. Erickson's background in traditional Chinese art combined with almost 30 years of experience studying, curating and teaching about contemporary Chinese art positions her uniquely to identify and explain the most important work in the field. Ink Studio's mission is to present this work to the public in a closely curated exhibition program supported by in-depth critical analysis, scholarly exchange and bi-lingual publishing in Chinese and English.
Ink Studio's program includes established artists such as Wang Dongling 王冬龄 (b. 1945), Yang Jiechang 杨诘苍 (b. 1956) and Li Huasheng 李华生 (b. 1944) who are featured in the Metropolitan's current exhibition, alongside younger artists who pursue more experimental practices such as Zheng Chongbin 郑重賓 (b. 1961), Huang Zhiyang 黄致阳 (b. 1965) and Huang Bingyi 黄冰逸 (b. 1975).
At the Armory Show, Ink Studio will feature the woodblock prints and one monumental ink painting of Chen Haiyan whose work draws upon a singular, life-long archive of personal dream journals. Situating Chen's work between dream and reality, the critic Amjad Majid writes that "while in Kafka's work the fantastic is employed to address the quotidian horror of everyday life, in Chen Haiyan's work it is used to shed light on its quotidian wonder." Her works can be found in the collections of the British Museum, the Shanghai Art Museum and the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena.
The art of Chen Haiyan will be on display at the Armory Show; other artists' works can be viewed by appointment. Images are available upon request.
