Fairfield U. Art Museum Announces Two Winter Exhibitions

Press release from Fairfield University:

Dec. 8, 2021

Fairfield University Art Museum announces the upcoming exhibitions ink/stone and SEEING IS BELIEVING: CROSSINGS AND TRANSPOSITIONS, PART II. Opening in the museum’s Walsh Gallery on January 21, 2022, these two exhibitions present different perspectives on contemporary Chinese art.

Ink/stone features works by artists from the 20th and 21st centuries who engage with ink and stone as materials, subjects, and concepts. Curated by Dr. Ive Covaci, this exhibition will feature some 15 Chinese paintings and works on paper presented together with sculpture, including an 18th-century scholar’s rock and a steel reimagining of this form.

Employing a range of techniques and media, the artists included in this exhibition make diverse points of contact with Chinese artistic traditions. Some embrace the emphasis on ink brushstrokes on paper or silk to render mountainous landscapes or rock forms; others incorporate media and styles usually associated with western painting: oil on canvas, or gouache and watercolor. Yet others use photography, industrial processes of fabrication, or create conceptual and performance art. The contemporary works are shown together with older stone objects such as Buddhist steles, a scholar’s rock, and inkstones, which provide historical touchpoints for the artists’ reinterpretations of these forms and media.

The artists in the exhibition include An Ho, Bingyi, Gu Wenda, Huang Yan, Lee Chun-yi, Liu Dan, Qiu Deshu, Zhan Wang and others. Considering these artists in a transnational context helps break down simplistic dichotomies of east and west. They include some who were born in China and now make their homes in the United States, and others who have remained in China; a Chinese-American painter who identifies with the classical tradition of landscape painting, and artists who, after an extended period in the States, have returned to live and work in Asia.

Also on view in the Walsh Gallery is, SEEING IS BELIEVING: CROSSINGS AND TRANSPOSITIONS, PART II. In the spring of 2019, Fairfield University studio art professor Jo Yarrington was one of five American artists who traveled to Guangzhou to take part in a cross-cultural exchange between the United States and China (the others were Margot Rocklen, Mary Teichman, Carmela Venti, and Yuemei Zhang). The selected artists are all members of The Printmakers Network of Southern New England (PNSNE), a collective of artist/printmakers. This initiative included both an educational program (artist talks, workshops, classroom visits and demonstrations) as well as solo exhibitions by each of the artists. These exhibitions and the concurrent educational events took place at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Museum and in the Academy studios. Although each artist’s exhibition had its own individual title, the comprehensive title for the group was CROSSINGS AND TRANSPOSITIONS, PART I.

The second component of this initiative, SEEING IS BELIEVING: CROSSINGS AND TRANSPOSITIONS, PART II, is presented in collaboration with the Fairfield University Art Museum, Fairfield University. Five Chinese artists, He Jiancheng, Luo Biwu, Zhang Zhengmin, Xiao Yaoning, and Zuo Zengyao are exhibiting some 50 artworks at the museum’s Walsh Art Gallery. The works include ink on paper, collage, mixed media, painting, ceramics and prints. For the duration of the exhibition, the Chinese artists will conduct virtual talks, workshops, and demonstrations, similar to those given in-person by their American counterparts in 2019.

Together, these two exhibitions each explore the ways in which contemporary Chinese artists draw upon and challenge tradition in their work.

Generous funding in support of ink/stone has been provided by the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation.

SEEING IS BELIEVING has been made possible with the generous support of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Yang Zhiguang Art & Education Foundation, and the Printmakers’ Network of Southern New England.

Extensive virtual programming accompanying these exhibitions will include the following:

Thursday, January 20, 5 p.m.
Opening Night Event: Prof. Jo Yarrington in conversation with artists He Jiang Cheng, Luo Biwu and Zuo Zhengyao, and introduction of ink/stone by Ive Covaci, PhD
Kelley Theatre + streaming

Thursday, January 20, 6-8 p.m.
Opening Reception: ink/stone and SEEING IS BELIEVING: CROSSINGS AND TRANSPOSITIONS, PART II exhibitions
Walsh Gallery and Quick Center lobby

Saturday, January 29
Virtual Family Day: Chinese Art
Wednesday, February 2, 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Demonstration and workshop: Cyantoype (Jo Yarrington) and four-color etching (Mary Teichman)
Loyola Hall Lower Level printmaking studio (limited to 15)

Wednesday, February 2, 2-4:30 p.m.
Demonstration and workshop: Japanese woodblock print (mokuhanga) with cloisonné reference (Margot Rocklen) and silkscreen monoprint (Carmela Venti)
Loyola Hall Lower Level printmaking studio (limited to 15)

Tuesday, February 8, 5 p.m.
Lecture: Rocks and Mountains in Recent Chinese Art
Yao Wu, Jane Chace Carroll Curator of Asian Art, Smith College Museum of Art in Conversation with Ive Covaci
Co-sponsored by the Art History & Visual Culture Program, Department of Visual and Performing Arts
Walsh Gallery

Wednesday, February 9, 7 p.m.
Workshop: Chinese Calligraphy with artist He Jiancheng
Streaming

Thursday, February 10, 11 a.m.
Art in Focus: Luo Biwu, Parts, 2015, silkscreen print
Michelle DiMarzo, Curator of Education and Academic Engagement
Streaming

Wednesday, February 16, 11 a.m.
Workshop: Chinese Brush Painting with Yuemei Zhang
Loyola LL printmaking studio (registration limited to 30; materials provided)

Thursday, February 17, 11 a.m.
Art in Focus: Luo Biwu, Parts, 2015, silkscreen print
Michelle DiMarzo, Curator of Education and Academic Engagement
Walsh Gallery

Tuesday, February 22, 5 p.m.
Lecture: Title TBD
Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe, Director, Asia Society Museum
Part of the Edwin L. Weisl, Jr. Lectureships in Art History, funded by the Robert Lehman Foundation
Kelley Theatre + streaming

Additional program information may be found at fairfield.edu/museum.

This press release was produced by Fairfield University. The views expressed here are the author's own.