Open Books: A New Dialogue exhibition opens Nov. 15
A new exhibition, “Open Books: A New Dialogue,” will open Wednesday, Nov. 15, in the Charles Chu Asian Art Reading Room at the Charles E. Shain Library, with a panel discussion and reception from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Panelists include Chen Zijin; Zhang Hao; Zhu Chunhang; Mary Husted; Sue Hunt; Thomas Martin; Shen Chen; Richard Vine; Christopher Steiner, Lucy C. McDannel '22 Professor of Art History and Anthropology and the College's Director of the Museum Studies Program; Peter Drake, Dean of Academic Affairs at New York Academy of Art; Andrea Wollensak, Professor of Art and Judith Ammerman '60 Director of the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology; Zhijian Qian, and Yibing Huang, Associate Professor of Chinese and Curator of the Chu-Griffis Asian Art Collection.
The exhibition is free and open to the public through Jan. 31, 2018. The exhibit will not be open during the College's winter break from Dec. 23-Jan. 2, 2018, and will be open 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. from Jan. 3-19.
This international exhibition features artists from China, the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and India whose works are inspired by or responding to the traditional Chinese art format of the folding album. It investigates how artists from diverse cultural traditions and artistic backgrounds creatively utilize the unique format not only as a way of self-expression, but, more importantly, as a method of cross-cultural dialogue and collaboration in the era of globalization. Among the 45 artists selected for the exhibition, 20 are non-Chinese and 25 are from China, including internationally renowned artists such as Xu Bing, Wang Dongling, Ding Yi, and Ye Yongqing.
This exhibition is organized by the Chu-Griffis Asian Art Collection at Connecticut College in collaboration with the Sanshang Contemporary Art Museum in Hangzhou, China, with special sponsorship from the China National Arts Fund. It is co-curated by Dr. Zhijian Qian, assistant professor of art history from City University of New York and Dr. Yibing Huang, acting curator of the Chu-Griffis Asian Art Collection and associate professor of Chinese at Connecticut College.
“Open Books: A New Dialogue” is adapted from the Open Books project, which was initiated by Welsh artist Mary Husted in 2012 and has since been exhibited in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, mainland China, Australia, Canada, and India. The current show will be its first exhibition in the United States.
October 31, 2017
