Artist talk: “Essence”

Title: Essence
Speakers: Zhang Yanzi, Henrietta Tsui, Pi Daojian, Julia Andrew
Date: Saturday, 9 July 2016
Time: 11am-12pm
Venue: HK Museum of Medical Sciences, 2 Caine Lane, Mid Levels
RSVP: [email protected] (Sign up now!)

Hong Kong Art Gallery Association and Galerie Ora-Ora invite you to an artist talk “Essence”.

Galerie Ora-Ora will host a talk on the crossover of art and science at the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences on this Saturday, 9 July during Zhang Yanzi solo exhibition “Essence”.

A joint collaboration between Galerie Ora-Ora and Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences, “Essence” is a continuation of Zhang’s “Remedy” series and marks new heights in her artistic journey as she blends together art and science through the philosophy, culture and healing processes of both western and eastern medicine.

About Zhang Yanzi
Artist

Renowned contemporary Chinese artist Zhang Yanzi was born in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province. Having ventured to Beijing to complete a Masters of Fine Arts in Chinese Painting at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts and Beijing Normal University she remained in the capital where she continues her artistic pursuits and serves as the Editor-in-chief of CAFA ART INFO at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Having garnered acclaim through solo exhibitions at Art Basel Hong Kong, Shanghai Reflex Art, Shanghai Art Museum and group exhibitions in the Venice Biennale, Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Beijing, the Hubei Art Museum, and Charterhouse of San Giacomo, Capri, Italy – Zhang is considered a Chinese artist of note on the international stage.

Selected by leading institutions, National Art Museum of China, Jiangsu Art Museum, CAFA Art Museum, L’Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, to display her work, Zhang is also very popular amongst private collectors and art connoisseurs.

Awards to date:
2013 – Lu Xun Culture Awards – the Best Artwork Award
2013 – “Walk While Stepping on the Gauze” in Art Exhibition of a Hundred Oil Paintings – Gold Award
2007 – Lichang Cup – 5th Traditional Chinese Painting Exhibition sponsored by China Federation of Literature and Art Circles – Gold Award
2004 – “Red Rose and White Rose”, the 10th National Art Exhibition – Bronze Prize

Note to Editors: a list of Zhang’s exhibitions are also available upon request.

About Henrietta Tsui-Leung
Founder and Co-President of Hong Kong Art Gallery Association and Owner of Galerie Ora-Ora

A pioneer and unifier of the Hong Kong art gallery scene, Henrietta established the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association in 2012 with fellow art enthusiast Katie de Tilly. An active supporter of well established and emerging Chinese and Western contemporary artists, Henrietta has grown her market leading gallery, Galerie Ora-Ora, to manage nearly forty veteran artists worldwide.

Henrietta is an expert in Contemporary Ink Art, curating state-of-the-art exhibitions in Hong Kong approximately once every two months and participating in numerous Art Fairs including Art Basel Hong Kong, Art HK, Fine Art Asia, Art Asia Miami, Art Singapore and Young Art Taipei, through Galerie Ora-Ora.

A life-long learner, Henrietta developed her interest in the arts during childhood playing with oil, pastel, sketching and Chinese ink mediums, and went on to obtain strong academic credentials including an MBA degree from Kellogg Business School, Northwestern University, and undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Economics from Queens University. She is currently completing her PhD degree in Art Critic and Theory in China’s Academy for Art Industries, Shanghai University.

As a prolific female cultural entrepreneur she plays an active role in the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation Hong Kong. Due to her unique background in business and art, she has been widely invited to speak as a thought leader and write academic papers on Contemporary Ink, the global art market, art as an investment, valuations, art licensing and art finance.

About Pi Daojian
Contemporary Chinese Art Critic, Curator

Renowned Chinese contemporary art critic Pi Daojian was born in Hubei in 1941. Before stepping into the art circle, he has worked as a mason, a substitute teacher and an advertisement artist. With dedication and perseverance, he finally graduated from Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, specialising in Chinese art history in the 80s. Since graduation, he has taught in various institutions, including Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, South China Normal University, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Hubei Institute for Nationalities, Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts Institute and more.

In addition, Pi has published numerous influential books and articles on contemporary art, including “Contemporary Art and Cultural Choices” (當代美術與文化選擇) and “The Art History of the Kingdom of Chu” (楚藝術史). Pi has also edited “Experimental Wash Painting of China in the 90’s” (90年代中國實驗水墨), “Appreciation of Chinese Fine Arts History and Works” (中國美術史及作品鑑賞) and other publications. Among his published works, “The Art History of the Kingdom of Chu” and “Appreciation of Chinese Fine Arts History and Works” were awarded “The 3rd National Book Award” and second place for the “First National Teachers College Outstanding Aesthetic Academic Achievement Prize” respectively.

Pi’s research not only influences the education sector, he also encourages local artists to take a more diverse and innovative pathway. In the mid-80s, he co-founded “The Trend of Art Thought”（美術思潮）, one of the most important publications in promoting “85 New Wave Movement”, which opened a new platform for art criticism in post-Cultural Revolution , enriched the debate on the evolution of traditional Chinese ink painting.

In addition to academic research and art criticism publications, Pi has also involved in organising seminars and exhibition curations, including “21st Century Chinese Contemporary Ink Art” seminar in South China Normal University (1996), “20 Years of Experimenting Chinese Ink” exhibition in Guangdong Museum of Art (2000) , “New Era in Ink”, a cross-strait contemporary ink painting exhibition at the Taipei Normal University Library (2003) and “The Review of Experimental Ink: 1985-2005 Exhibition at Shenzhen Art Gallery (2005).

About Dr. Julia Andrews
Specialist in Chinese Painting & Art
Professor at the Department of History of Art at The Ohio State University

As a professor in the Department of History of Art at The Ohio State University, Julia Andrews recognized as a scholar in both Chinese painting and Modern Chinese art. Her first book, “Painters and Politics in the People’s Republic of China” (1994) was chosen as the best book of the year on the topic of Modern China for the Joesph Levenson Prize from the Association for Asian Studies. A more recent book that she had written together with Kuiyi Shen, “Art of Modern China” (2012), was also awarded with the biennial Humanities Book Prize from the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) in 2013.

She is also working as a co-curator and catalogue author for various exhibitions such as “Fragmented Memory: The Chinese Avant-Garde in Exile” (1993), which is one of the first American exhibitions featuring contemporary Chinese art, at OSU’s Wexner Center for the Arts. Others include the Guggenheim Museum’s ground-breaking exhibition, “A Century in Crisis: Modernity and Tradition in the Art of Twentieth Century China” (1998) that was shown in New York and “Light Before Dawn: Unofficial Chinese Art, 1974-1985” (2013), which was a project collaboration with Asia Society in Hong Kong.