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Art League Houston Announces
For
Immediate Release
Contact: Sarah Schellenberg
(713) 523-9530 or alh@artleaguehouston.org
Three exhibitions of contemporary photo-based work
from China
Opening
Receptions on Saturday, March 8, 2008, 6-8 PM
Houston,
TX - Art League Houston is pleased to partner with FOTOFEST 2008 and
its Twelfth International Biennial of Photography and Photo-Related Art
in presenting three separate exhibitions of works by Chinese-based artists,
Sun Guojuan, Chen Lingyang
and Liu Lijie, March 8 - April 19,
2008. The opening reception for
Sun Guojuan: Sweetness
Forever, Chen Lingyang: Twelve Flower Months and Liu Lijie: Another
Episode will be at Art League Houston on Saturday, March 8, 2008,
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
These conceptual, mixed-media
works are presented as part of Current
Perspectives 1999-2008, a series of 11 one-person presentations by
leading contemporary Chinese artists. Current Perspective exhibitions
feature predominantly color, large-scale, staged, constructed, and
digitally produced works by Chinese mainland-based artists, which address
issues of religion, ethnicity, gender, urban transformation, identity,
globalization, and the inter-relationship of contemporary art to classical
Chinese art and history.
left: Sun Guojuan :: top: Liu Lijie :: below: Chen Lingyang
Born to a Chinese mother and a North
Korean father in 1959, Sun Guojuan is a photographer who lives and works in Kunming,
China. Sun Guojuan
is a graduate of the Department of Library Studies at Yunnan University (1985). Since graduating she has exhibited her
work in major museums and galleries throughout China,
as well as in Hong Kong, Korea, Sweden,
France, and the United States. Sun Guojuan's exhibition,
Sweetness Forever presents a series of photographic
diptychs portraying paired images of a female boudoir and its
mirror of self-reflection.
Close-ups of dressing tables loaded with bottles of perfume and
cosmetics are coupled with images of the artist's nude body caked in
sugary white icing, a playful Mona Lisa smile creeping around the corners
of her mouth. Sun Guojuan's work spoofs the
modern virtuous woman conscripted as a good consumer, as dictated by
China's economic market which encourages femininity through the
consumption of beauty products, through such popular sayings as "As
China gets richer, women should get prettier!" Beneath these satires of contemporary
gender norms imposed under the guise of capitalism, lies a critique of
women's representations of themselves as depicted only through their own
interior realms.
Chen
Lingyang is a filmmaker, photographer and
painter who was born in Zheijiang
Province in 1975 and now works
in Beijing, Paris
and New York. She studied at the Affiliated High School
of the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou
and the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing,
and has exhibited her work throughout Asia and Europe.
Well established in the Chinese underground scene, Chen Lingyang unflinchingly explores the hidden world of
Chinese femininity in her series Twelve Flower Months. Playing on the
well-established metaphor of women as flowers (Neha
Singh, UCSD Guardian), and based on traditional Chinese garden
architecture, this series of 12 photographs combine flowers (narcissus,
lotus, camellia, etc.), which in Chinese tradition represent the months
of the year, and graphic images of Lingyang's
body and her menstrual cycle. Lingyang's works seek to empower women by challenging
long accepted social and political submissiveness of Chinese woman, as
well as age-old cultural taboos and fears surrounding the menses cycle.
Liu
Lijie is a photographer and filmmaker who was
born in Shenyang,
China and now lives
and works in Beijing. Lijie
graduated with a degree in finance and for a period of time worked in a
bank. In 1997 she began teaching
herself photography. In 2004 she
left her job at the bank and entered the Photographic Institute of
Beijing Film Academy to pursue her photography full-time. Lijie's work
has been exhibited in major venues that include the New York
Photography Exhibition, the Pingyao
International Photography Festival, the Australia Center
for Photography, and Siegen Gallery in Germany,
among others. The photographs in Lijie's
Another Episode are staged mise en scenes in
which the artist deals with memory, isolation and loneliness. For
example, one photograph depicts a young woman sitting with an older man
in a car parked in the middle of what appears to be a field. She stares into space, as though
disconnected from what will happen next, while the man leans in toward
her, his hand placed suggestively on her shoulder. Another image shows a woman alone in an
operating or examination room, covered with sheet with only her face
exposed, as though dead or under anesthesia. Lijie says
"The reality I live is perplexing and alluring. ... I am
pessimistic from deep inside, for life is full of things that are beyond
my control. I would like to
process the age, which I was in and I am in, into a scene [composed by a
computer].... a small world imagined individually and not loyal to the
original at all ... I hope to devote myself to presenting the simplest
truth in an allegorical way."
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About
Art League Houston
Art League Houston is one of Houston's longest operating non-profit visual arts
organizations and was the first alternative art space in Texas.
Founded in 1948 and incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1953,
Art League Houston (ALH) was created to promote the public appreciation
of and interest in the visual arts. During the past 57 years, ALH
has provided over 760 exhibitions to the Houston
community, showcased the work of nearly 22,200 artists, and instructed
over 35,000 students through the Art League
School and Outreach
Program.
Our Mission
The mission of Art League Houston is
to cultivate awareness, appreciation, and accessibility of contemporary
visual art within the community for its cultural enrichment. Art
League Houston provides an opportunity for all members of the community
to experience the contemporary visual arts. We achieve our mission
through exhibitions, education and outreach programs.
Art
League Houston is supported principally by Houston Endowment
Inc., the estate of William G. Daugherty, Kevin & Laurie Foxx, City
of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance, John P. McGovern Foundation,
Kat Gallagher & Michael Rudelson, Bridgeway Charitable Trust, Bruce & Jaleh Sallee, Art Colony
Association/ Bayou City Art Festivals, and by Andrisin
Abbey, Aubrey and Sylvia Farb Community Service
Fund, Susan & Jack Apple, the Ann Bengtson
Memorial Fund, Brad & Leslie Bucher, Cantoni,
Marv & Billie Chasen,
CITI Smith Barney, Darrell & Peggy Delahoussaye,
Earth Exchange Corporation, Ray C. Fish Foundation, Hugh & Berthica Fitzsimons, Alice C. Boyd Gano, Nick & Candice Goodwin, James & Ann Harithas, Harris County Department of Education,
International Bank of Commerce, Inversion Coffee House, Kinder
Foundation, Leanna Laster,
Mangini/ Lakhia/ Delahoussaye & Associates, P.A., Kenneth &
Elena Marks, Mark & Gretchen Mazziotti,
National MS Society Lone Star Chapter, Marilyn Oshman,
Don & Crystal Owens, River Oaks Dental Arts, Michael G. Rudelson & Co., RWG Construction Management,
Louisa Stude Sarofim,
Tahamia Spain, Steve & Susie Streller/ Charter Custom Homes, Texas Art Supply, Top
Drawer Lingerie, Kathryn Sherman Ttee, Vinson
& Elkins L.L.P., The Woodlands Development Company, and all of our
sponsors, members and volunteers.
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About
FotoFest
FotoFest's mission is to
promote the exchange of art and ideas through international programs and
the presentation of photographic art.
FotoFest programs work globally and locally,
bringing together an international vision of art and cross-cultural
exchanges with a commitment to community involvement and the enrichment
of Houston's
cultural resources.
FOTOFEST 2008 focuses on one of the
most compelling cultural, political and economic phenomena of the
contemporary world- China
and its transformation.
Politically and culturally,
photography has been a key element in creating the public face of China
since the late 19th century. From 1870 to 1920, photography helped explain
and justify European economic exploitation and occupation of China. From 1938-1980, photography became a
major tool in Communist Party campaigns to win internal public support
for its philosophy and programs, as well as the message it wanted to send
to the outside world. From 1980 -
2008, photography has become one of the major mediums of communication,
public and private, about contemporary Chinese society.
Departing from the most contemporary
art programs on China,
the FOTOFEST 2008 exhibitions and programs present both historical and
contemporary work. The historical component features three exhibitions
showing works from 1934-1975 that have never been shown outside of China. Seven contemporary programs and
exhibitions present work from the late 1980's until the present-
classical and mixed media work by Chinese artists addressing a myriad of
contemporary themes, with works by Chinese artists working in mainland China
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Art League Houston
1953 Montrose Blvd
Houston, TX
77006
p: (713) 523.950
f: (713)
523.4053
alh@artleaguehouston.org ::
www.artleaguehouston.org
Art League
Houston is a 501[c][3] nonprofit organization.
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