2009

Beautiful World, Stella Downer Gallery, Sydney 2009

Artists: Lao Dan, Hu Qinwu, Huang Xu

Using Chinese ink links me with a tradition thousands of years old. This medium helps me align ancient thought and ancestral artistic practice with the present, something very important to me. Every day I work with both calligraphy and drawing, and the Beautiful World series is a hybrid of these two. A recent visit to Stonehenge left a profound impact on me, and since then I have been fascinated with finding a way to express the eternal knowledge of those who came before us. My work reflects an ongoing fascination with traditional thought, natural phenomena, ancient mystical sites and supernatural activity. I am reconciling the divide between art and thought. Through traditional medium and modern method my Beautiful World series bridges communication between past and present.

Lao Dan Beautiful Lines, Beijing 2008

Catching Light, Quak Space, 798 Beijing, 2009

Artists: Li Gang, Hu Qinwu, Huang Xu, Zhang Hongkuan

Li Gang / Hu Qinwu / Huang Xu / Zhang Hongkuan are four contemporary Chinese artists who use photographic techniques as image-making devices. Photography is dependent on light to unveil images, but the source and nature of light, the technical process of catching light and processing the images, shape very different views of the world. The works are at once poetic, but at the same time, infused with irony – to a greater or lesser extent. The artists draw on the immediate environment to find an aesthetic sensibility in ugliness or to transform beauty into suggestions of the other.

Reg Newitt Beijing June 2009

Fragments Huang Xu, October Gallery, London

In his London debut exhibition, Chinese artist Huang Xu presents a series of ethereal oversize C-prints exploring the fragile nature of the contemporary global economy. The tattered remains of plastic bags and used condoms from rubbish heaps in China are collected and digitally remodeled in the 3D scanners normally used by archaeologists, to produce images of haunting luminosity. Evoking the aesthetic of the sublime, Huang Xu’s vast prints capture freeze-frame shots of decay in a maelstrom of economic change.

October Gallery London February 2011

Hu Qinwu-Meditations, Quac Space 798, Beijing, 2009

In his paper and canvas Hu Qinwu lays down the elements of mark making with great assurance and sensitivity– on first appearance the works appear to be minimal and monochrome but on careful viewing they are filled with elaborate and sophisticated variations of colour, shape and texture. He uses a variety of mediums, ink, tempera, acrylic and oil, all seem to melt into meditations of texture and colour – every mark and subtle shade is of paramount importance. His canvases in particular are pared down to quiet and elegant simplicity and yet exhibit an extraordinary sophistication in his search for a link between form and colour, the myriad patterns of dots and marks vibrate across rich grounds of black and grey – a wonderful play on both strength and subtlety.

Tony Scott Beijing November 2008

Tempting God, Depot Gallery, Sydney, 21 September – 3 October 2009

Artists: Wayne Warren, Lindy Lee, Jayne Dyer, Guan Wei, Lu Gang, Tony Scott, Gonkar Gyatso.

A young artist from China, emerging artists – two from the UK; two from Australia – and two established artists from UK and Australia, make up the group exhibition Tempting God at the Depot Gallery Sydney.The works are serious but playful, witty and ironic, pointed as well as ambiguous – they refer to or play on the idea of essential values which individuals and societies adopt in order to make meaning of life. For some it is religious ideals, for others it may be acquisition or consumption of material goods, others invoke the shamanistic spirit to provide guidance while still others refute notions of essential belief, preferring an existentialist attitude devoid of past or future realities.

Reg Newitt Beijing September 2009

Trading Meaning, DAC space 798 Art District Beijing, May 2009

Artists: Gonkar Gyatso, Adam Bridgland, Tony Scott

The exchange of ideas as the raison d’etre of art is nothing new; nor is the apparent dissonance between art and commerce. Trading meaning acknowledges the communication of ideas through Gonkar Gyatso, Adam Bridgland and Tony Scott – three artists who employ forms generally associated with branding, marketing and commerce. Trading involves an exchange of product or service and has a direct bearing on culture, lifestyle and values. We can deny the impact of trade and commerce, we can overstate its impact, we can rail against the values associated with it, or we can whole-heartedly embrace it – but we cannot ignore the effect of the exchange of goods for benefit and/or profit. Implicit in the practice of trading is a readily decipherable code which conveys the nature and purpose of the agency

that provides the product or service. This needs to be accessible to potential clients, customers, consumers and collectors, through promotion and advertising. The key element in this transaction is the symbol of the agency as a logo and/or slogan – branding.

想法的互换是存在且必要的但却使艺术变成了一种不仅仅是表面了无新意的物品且突显了艺术和商业之间的冲突感。贡嘎嘉措, 亚当柏格兰和Tony Scott透过交易的意义, 如品牌行销，营销和商业行为，认知了想法的互通性。

交易是一种物品和服务的交换行为，而且还因为文化、生活型态价值观而有不同的导向。我们可以否认潮流及商业的攻势,；我们可以夸大它；我们也可以跟潮流逆道而行，又或者我们可以打开心胸拥抱它，但是我们无法忽略物品交易所带来的无论是好的或不好的效益。

Reg Newitt, Trading Meaning Catalogue, Beijing May 2009