By Helena Fang for AIA Published: October 8, 2008 |
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Broken planes and rusty trains: Cui Guotai's first U.S. solo show As you cross 10th Ave., 25th St. may seem like an industrial and barren street but tucked away in these buildings is NY’s largest collection of international art. But then again this is Chelsea - where there are more galleries per block than any other neighborhood in NY and perhaps in the world. This Saturday, I made the trek down 25th St. to the Chelsea Arts Tower for the opening reception of Cui Guotai’s solo exhibit entitled Evidence of A Lost Era, at the ChinaSquare gallery. Cui Guotai is originally fron Shenyang Province but currently resides in Beijing. He graduated from Northeast Normal Unirveristy, Gingua University, and the Central academy of fine arts. His art has been shown in the 2nd Beijing Biennial and the National Art Museum of China. His work is also currently on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Evidence of a Lost Art, curated by Robert C. Morgan, is Guotai's first solo exhibit in the U.S. Upon entering the ChinaSquare Gallery on the 8th floor of the Chelsea Arts Tower, I was greeted by an incredibly shiny and metallic statue of Mao to my right and a crowd of people gathered around the information desk to my left. I was there to meet with the director, Zoe Chui but decided to take a look at the exhibit before attempting to locate her in that crowd. The power of Guotai’s painting is not only seen but also immediately felt on the floor of ChinaSquare’s 4,500 square foot gallery. From a distance, all you see are large paintings of rusty or black and white images of planes, cars, trains and aged steel infrastructures. Up close, you can see the chunks of dripping paint that seem to have frozen in time upon the artist’s stroke that hide and construct these images. If I were asked to describe Cui Guotai’s paintings in one word, that word would have to be grand. National Celebration is a painting that features a rustic old train – the painting is not only grand in its depiction of Guotai’s strong artistic technique but also because it takes over an entire wall of the gallery. After having taken in the immensity of the exhibit, I was able to find ChinaSquare’s director Zoe Chui who is originally from Taiepi but came to ChinaSquare after assisting the chief curator of ICP. "ChinaSquare was born from a desire to facilitate contemporary Chinese artists entering internationmarkets while providing guidance to new enthusiasts" explained Zoe when I asked her about the gallery. "Notably different from other galleries...[we are] commited soley to the promotion of Chinese contemporary work, and only Chinese artists." Looking around the gallery, I saw the number of enthusiasts, which had grown tremendously from when I first arrived. I asked Zoe if she has recently noticed a change or growth in the gallery's audience. "The good quality of the art produced by the Chinese contemporary artists is the most essential reason. And undoubtedly, it is strongly related to the rise of China in recent years. With China's growing economic power, the whole world turns their eyes to the East. During this process, people learn to defamiliarize themselves with the stereotypical China--its politics, history and culture--and are motivated and inspired to truly understand this country. This phenomenon in generally helps Chinese contemporary art gain so much attention globally nowadays." That certainly explained the crowd and its diversity - ranging from college students to older collectors. When I was finally introduced to the very popular artist of this reception, I immediately asked Cui Guotai what his inspiration was and he readily answered, “the ephemeral qualities of China – from things that were happening and developing in the past that are now gone to the things that are happening and developing now that will soon disappear.” This perception of China’s transience is visually captured in each one of Guotai’s paintings. The one that caught my eye was the painting Private Jet – the painting is of a plane that is broken that remains on the runway. Not only has the plane’s function disappeared but the image of the plane itself appears to be disappearing under strong strokes of paint. Guotai explained to me that this painting is not of any jet, but of the exact carrier used to transport the chairman. As I spoke to Guotai, more patrons began to gather with questions of their own. I quickly asked him one last question about the only colorful painting he had in the exhibit, Into Tibet. “When I think of Tibet, all I see is the green grass and the blue sky and that is what I tried to capture in the painting,” explained Guotai. In terms of future projects, Guotai explained that he plans to continue with the same inspiration though the subjects may change depending on China’s future. Evidence of A Lost Era will be on exhibit Tuesday – Saturday, from 10am to 6pm until November 1, 2008. |
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