NEW YORK CITY — The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum announced the artists who have been commissioned to create works that will enter its collection as part of the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative.
Zhou Tao, “Blue and Red,” 2014, color high-definition video projection, with sound, 16 minutes, 9 seconds.Courtesy the artist and Han Nefkens Foundation. © Zhou Tao.
Hailing from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, Chia-En Jao, Kan Xuan, Sun Xun, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, Tsang Kin-Wah, Yangjiang Group, and Zhou Tao will produce works for a group exhibition opening November 4 at the Guggenheim Museum.
Working in a range of mediums, including video, sculpture, installation, mixed media on paper, and participatory intervention, these artists are unified by their distinctive and independent practices that poetically balance politics and aesthetics. Featuring the new commissioned works, the Guggenheim presentation will offer a heterogeneous view of contemporary art from China and explore tensions between individual narratives and the constructions of mainstream history. The exhibition, the second of the initiative, will be accompanied by a catalog and a robust offering of educational programs and public events with artists.
The exhibition is organized by Hou Hanru, Consulting Curator, the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative, and Xiaoyu Weng, the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Associate Curator of Chinese Art. This initiative is part of the Guggenheim Museum’s Asian Art Initiative, directed by Dr Alexandra Munroe, Samsung Senior Curator, Asian Art and Senior Advisor, Global Arts.
Launched in 2013, the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative is the most recent of the Guggenheim’s initiatives to work with artists, scholars, and curators from around the world to bring intersecting regional and global histories of modernism and contemporary practices to the fore. Made possible by a major grant from the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation, this international curatorial program focuses on commissioning major works for the Guggenheim’s collection by artists born in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Macao.
All works created through the initiative will become part of the Guggenheim’s collection, forming the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Collection. Through the selection of key artists, practices, and issues arising from across Greater China, the initiative seeks to strengthen the Guggenheim’s collegial network among the Chinese art community, advance the study and appreciation of post-1979 Chinese art, and expand the discourse and investigation of contemporary art today.
The first of the initiative’s three exhibitions, “Wang Jianwei: Time Temple,” was on view at the Guggenheim October 2014–February 2015 and featured a sculptural installation, paintings, a film, and a performance by Jianwei, one of China’s leading conceptual artists.
The second exhibition will continue the Guggenheim’s history of site-specific works developed in collaboration between artists and curators. The artists — who were selected after extensive curatorial research and studio visits — share a socially aware perspective, actively repositioning and challenging current dialogues about art from Greater China in an international context.
The museum is at 1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street. For general information, www.guggenheim.org or 212-423-3500.
