28 Chinese showcases works by twenty-eight contemporary Chinese artists in six San Antonio Museum of Art galleries. Drawn from the Rubell Family Collection in Miami, 28 Chinese is the culmination of the Rubell’s six research trips to China between 2001 and 2012. They visited one hundred artists’ studios, in Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Xi'an, to select these works. The exhibition represents many of China’s best-known artists including Qiu Zhijie, Zhang Huan, Zhang Enli, and the provocative Ai Weiwei.
Zhu Jinshi’s enormous, suspended Boat, constructed of paper, bamboo and cotton thread, anchors the exhibition, and offers visitors a breathtaking poetic and immersive experience. Other works include paintings, photographs, sculptures, and video installations, many of which are politically relevant to Chinese social issues within the last decade or so. Materials abound in 28 Chinese from the more traditional use of wood, oil and acrylic paints, and bronze, to more surprising materials such as taxidermy animals, and clothing. This will be the first exhibition in Texas for many of these artists, all born between 1954 and 1986, stressing the contemporaneity of the exhibition.
This exhibition is generously supported by the Koehler Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee,and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.
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