National Art Museum, Nati

onal Museum No.1 Wu Si Da Jie,
Dongcheng District, Beijing, China 100010
8 July – 13 August 2008

The Red Mansion Foundation was pleased to be chosen to curate the British Pavilion at the Beijing Biennale in July 2008.

Following a show in 2005 in which The Red Mansion Foundation exhibited works by Royal Academicians at the National Art Museum in Beijing, the Chinese Artists Association approached our organization to select a group of artists and their work to be put forward for the Biennale. This show comprised of a group of artists and sculptors that includes former Red Mansion Art Prize winners and a fresh breed of British artists, as well as some more established artists. The full list runs thusly:

Allen Jones, Anthony Francis, Petros Chrisostomou, Bruno Pacheco, Charlotte Crowther, Chris Jones, Christian Ward, David Mach, Francesca Lowe, Ian McKeever, Susan Stockwell and John Bellany.

This exhibition did not aim to be comprehensive but envisaged the exposure of the Chinese audience at the Biennale to a fresh generation of British artists, as well as honouring the legacy of respected and acknowledged artists. The Red Mansion Foundation felt very privileged to be invited to participate in the third Beijing Biennale and to be able to continue its relationship with the Chinese Artist Association.

One of the Red Mansion’s most admired and beloved permanent pieces, a striking sculpture by the artist Zhan Wang, entitled the “Scholar’s Rock”, will be on display over the Summer of 2008 at Wisley Gardens, as part of a sculpture trail for the “China Art Now” season. The trail will link pieces from the British Museum and the Hayward gallery to name a few, and should be a breathtaking experience. Wisley is one of Britain’s best loved garden with 240 acres of land, offering a fascinating blend of the beautiful with practical and innovative design.

Venice
10 June – 21 November 2007

The Red Mansion Foundation was co-sponsor of the Chinese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale this year. The Chinese Pavilion, entitled ‘Everyday Miracles’ was curated by Hou Hanru and focused on the work of four female artists, a valuable and urgent project in both Chinese and international contexts. The artists are Shen Yuan, Kan Xuan, Cao Fei and Yin Xiuzhen. The four artists created site specific works in the Arsenale building and the Vergini Gardens. Both inside and outside of China, despite or perhaps because of the booming development it is undergoing, the passion for contemporary Chinese art often overlooks the particular importance of women artists. Ranging in age from their twenties to mid-forties the artists exemplified in very different ways the evolution of the relationship between female artists and the Chinese art scene.

Curator: Hou Hanru
8 September – 4 November 2007

The Red Mansion Foundation will be supporting The 10th International Istanbul Biennial project in September, entitled ‘Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary – Optimism in the age of global war’. The 10th International Istanbul Biennial, organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, will be open in the city from September 8 – November 4, 2007, under the curatorship of Mr. Hou Hanru, currently Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs at San Francisco Art Institute. The biennial will focus on urban issues and architectural reality as a means of exposing different cultural contexts and artistic visions regarding the complex and diverse forms of modernity.

Tate Liverpool
30 March – 10 June 2007

The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China will be the first exhibiiton in the UK to reflect the varied and complex nature of contemporary art in China, and will present a comprehensive overview of some of the most interesting and important art to be made since 2000. Working in close collaboration with the Beijing-based writer and curator Karen Smith, and the Shanghai-based artist, critic and curator Xu Zhen, Simon Groom, Head of Exhibitions at Tate Liverpool, has spent several years researching the artists and works for the exhibition. The exhibition will feature work by about twenty artists, in a variety media, and will include several large-scale installations, and several new commissions.

www.tate.org.uk

www.liverpool08.com

8 October – 5 November 2006

Serpentine Gallery presents China Power Station: Part 1 at Battersea Power Station, co-produced by The Red Mansion Foundation.

A major exhibition of Chinese contemporary art, architecture and sound. Site and exhibition tours, tea room, shopping, events. For five weeks this autumn, the Serpentine Gallery will take up residence in Battersea Power Station with a presentation of Chinese culture. This is the first chapter in an on-going series of exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art and architecture, organised by the Serpentine Gallery in collaboration with the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Mordern Art, Oslo.

China Power Station: Part 1 is a unique opportunity to visit the iconic Battersea Power Station before it is redeveloped. It will also be the first chance to see the work of an extraordinary and vibrant new generation of Chinese artists and architects installed at this remarkable site.

www.serpentinegallery.org

www.af-moma.no

Hans Ulrich Obrist, Nicolette Kwok and Vicky Hwang

8 October – 5 November 2006
Serpentine Gallery presents China Power Station: Part 1 at Battersea Power Station
Co-produced by The Red Mansion Foundation.

A major exhibition of Chinese contemporary art, architecture and sound.
Site and exhibition tours, tea room, shopping, events.For five weeks this autumn, the Serpentine Gallery will take up residence in Battersea Power Station with a presentation of Chinese culture. This is the first chapter in an on-going series of exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art and architecture, organised by the Serpentine Gallery in collaboration with the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Mordern Art, Oslo. Hans Ulrich Obrist, Nicolette Kwok and Vicky Hwang

China Power Station: Part 1 is a unique opportunity to visit the iconic Battersea Power Station before it is redeveloped. It will also be the first chance to see the work of an extraordinary and vibrant new generation of Chinese artists and architects installed at this remarkable site.

23 December 2005 – 20 January 2006
Sackler Wing of Galleries, The Royal Academy

A major exhibition of works by leading Royal Academicians John Bellany, Paul Huxley, Allen Jones, David Mach, Ian McKeever and Chris Orr, inspired by their recent travels through China, will go on show in the Royal Academy’s Sackler Wing of Galleries from 23 December 2005 to 20 January 2006. The exhibition, Royal Academicians in China: 2003-2005, has been organised by the Royal Academy of Arts in proud association with The Red Mansion Foundation, and was shown at the China National Museum of Fine Arts in Beijing and at the Art Museum in Shanghai earlier this year.

Highlights of the exhibition include Paul Huxley’s bold formalised Chinese characters, Ian McKeever’s temple paintings, John Bellany’s scenes of the Shanghai Bund, Allen Jones’s series of court dancers, Chris Orr’s satirical scenes of Beijing and Shanghai and David Mach’s controversial image of Mao, too sensitive to be shown in China.

The artists were invited to travel to China by The Red Mansion Foundation as part of the ongoing Building Bridges programme. The Red Mansion Foundation, founded in 1999, is a not-for-profit organisation, which promotes cultural exchange between China and the UK through contemporary art. Each artist met with local artists and gave a lecture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Upon their return to Great Britain each artist created a body of work inspired by their stay in China. The Royal Academicians were chosen for their ability to communicate and for their different approach to making art, hence each artist has assimilated their experience in a different way.

This exhibition coincided with the Royal Academy’s landmark exhibition, “China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795”, sponsored by Goldman Sachs, which presents imperial treasures of the Qing dynasty. Drawn largely from the remarkable collections of the Palace Museum, Beijing, it focuses on the artistic and cultural riches of the three most powerful emperors of China’s last dynasty.

www.royalacademy.org.uk