MIND SPACE
Opening Reception: Monday, February 14, 2011, 5-7 pm, University Art Gallery
Exhibit will run February 15 - March 17, 2011, Mondays-Fridays 10 am - 4 pm (closed Friday, March 11)
MIND SPACE, an exhibition curated by Gao Minglu that will feature the work of artists Zhu Jinshi, Zhang Yu, Lei Hong and He Xiangyu at the University of Pittsburgh Art Gallery. The exhibition will explore MAXIMALISM, the philosophical core of Chinese abstract art and a concept that places emphasis on the spiritual experience of the artist in the process of creation. Maximalism’s primary objective is to question and overthrow assumptions about the meaning of art.
In Maximalist theory, the meaning of a painting is not expressed by its surface or subject matter and a painting is not considered a unique and privileged product of human culture containing commonly held values of virtue and creativity. According to Maximalists, the meaning of art goes beyond language (yan bu jin yi) and comes from a dialogue between the artist and the material object. It is a response to the rapidly changingmaterial world.
While the work in the exhibition is similar in appearance to modern or conceptual art, it has a different theoretical foundation. Most Maximalist artists consider their work to be incomplete and fragmented records of daily meditation. They do not adhere to compositional principles or ideas and their art is natural, repetitious and fragmentary. The work functions as what is often called aliushui zhangin Chinese, literally, “an account book of streaming water,” which means an everyday record of something that is extremely unimportant, micro-trivial and fragmented from daily life.
This exhibition was first presented at Contrasts Gallery in Shanghai in the summer of 2010, and will travel to Dallas, New York and Los Angeles, introducing the USA to a new realm of art and expression.
Permanent Collection
The permanent art collection of the University Art Gallery contains approximately 3,500 objects produced world-wide, from antiquity to the present day, in a wide range of media. Highlights include one of the largest collections in North America of prints by 17th-century French printmaker Jacques Callot; drawings by Antonio Domenico Gabbiani, Anthony Van Dyck, and Paolo Veronese; prints by William Hogarth, Hieronymous Wierix, Sebastian Bourdon, Giovanni Piranesi, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Hiroshige, and Kuniyoshi; paintings by Gilbert Stuart, Rembrandt Peale, George Hetzel, Gertrude Quastler, Aaron Gorson, Joe Jones, William Gropper, Andrew Wyeth, and the modern Chinese artist, Ch'i Pai Shih; ancient Chinese jade and bronze objects; Inuit carvings and figurines; and a large neon installation by contemporary artist Gu Wenda.
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