September 5, 2015 - January 3, 2016
This fall, works by twenty-eight contemporary Chinese artists will take over six galleries of the San Antonio Museum of Art. Drawn from the Rubell Family Collection, 28 Chinese is the culmination of the family's six research trips and over one hundred studio visits throughout China between 2001 and 2012. The Rubell Family Collection is one of the largest privately owned contemporary art collections in the world. 28 Chinese represents both new talents and several of China's best-known artists including Ai Weiwei.
Works on view will range from paintings and photographs to sculptures and video including the immersive sculpture by Zhu Jinshi that is a 50-foot suspended "boat" constructed entirely of paper, bamboo, and cotton thread. Many of the works deal with social, political, and historical issues that can be connected to China, but are also universal concerns. Other works engage with the genres of landscape, portraiture, and abstraction. 28 Chinese is an exploration of the variety of material being used today—from wood, oil and acrylic paints, and bronze to taxidermy animals, tea, coca cola, and worn clothing. This will be the first exhibition in Texas for many of these artists, all born between 1954 and 1987. 28 Chinese was exhibited at the Rubell Family Collection in Miami and it will travel to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco in June before finishing its tour in San Antonio. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated 262-page catalogue with short texts from each artist in both Chinese and English. There is a $10 special exhibition surcharge to view 28 Chinese.
About the Rubell Family Collection and Contemporary Arts Foundation:
The Rubell Family Collection (RFC) was established in 1964 in New York City, shortly after its founders Donald and Mera Rubell were married. In Miami, Florida, since 1993, the RFC is exhibited within a 45,000-square-foot warehouse. It is open to the public December to May. The Contemporary Arts Foundation (CAF) was created in 1994 by Don and Mera Rubell with their son Jason Rubell to expand the RFC's public mission inside the paradigm of a contemporary art museum.
The collection is constantly expanding and features such well-known artists as Jean-Michel Basquait, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Kara Walker and Andy Warhol. In addition to displaying internationally established artists, the RFC actively acquires, exhibits and champions emerging artists working at the forefront of contemporary art.
This exhibition is generously supported by Koehler Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.
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The San Antonio Museum of Art is housed in the historic Lone Star Brewery on the Museum Reach of the San Antonio Riverwalk. With more than 25,000 works representing 5,000 years of history and cultures from around the world, a visit to the Museum is a journey through time and across continents.
Image Captions:
1. Artists standing in front of Liu Wei, Liberation No.1, 2013, oil on canvas, triptych: overall 118 1/8 x 212 5/8 in. (300 x 540 cm), Courtesy of Rubell Family Collection, Miami, Photography by Chi Lam
2. Installation view of Boat, 2012, by Zhu Jinshi (Chinese, b. 1954) from 28 Chinese, 2015, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
