On the third and eighth days, see an exhibition composed only of female artists. "The World Is My Appearance—2023 Contemporary Women Artists Invitational Exhibition" is being held at the Zhu Yizhan Art Museum. More than 50 works/groups of works by 20 female artists Jin Weihong, Liu Manwen, Shi Zhiying, Wang Xiaohui and Zhang Leiping participated in the exhibition, these female artists with an age span of more than half a century, using oil painting, ink, watercolor, sculpture, installation, photography, comprehensive materials and other art styles, starting from their own subjective cognition and life experience, focusing on excavating inner resources, understanding contemporary life, and attaching importance to the expression of personal experience, so as to explore the value of art and the meaning of women's existence.
Caption: Jin Weihong relies on (xxiv) ink on paper
"Female artists face the dual pressures of work and life, and the writers of art history are mostly men, and female artists inevitably face some cultural and institutional constraints, and the support and encouragement between peers have become particularly precious." Curator Fu Jun said. "The world is my appearance" wants to express a strong subjective consciousness, so as to encourage women's self-confidence and a strong sense of subjectivity. The artwork created by women artists is a meaningful part of our world.
In the first section of the exhibition, "Nature and Spiritual Light", works by eight artists, Zhang Leiping, Wan Fu, Maya Kramer, Shi Zhiying, Zhou Yinchen, Zhang Yue, Zhang Chi and Zhu Xiaowen, are exhibited. The eight artists do not aim to reproduce nature, wind and landscape, but use women's unique inspiration to delicately express their own feelings, creating a flexible spiritual world and meaning space. Zhang Leiping, the oldest artist in the exhibition, brought works created in 1995, and she hopes to use her young works to communicate with today's young creators. "In an era like this, as long as women control it themselves, the times will give you everything."
Caption: Zhang Leiping Impressions of the Ancient City of Jiaohe (3) 3 Ink on paper
The "Nature and Spiritual Light" section is located on the first floor of Zhu Yizhan Art Museum, outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, facing the historic Lu Xun Park, strolling tourists, shaking tree shadows, hidden mountain rocks, and green lawns, constitute another picture of spiritual light, echoing and communicating with the works in the exhibition hall inside and outside.
In the second section of the exhibition, "Gaze and Disenchantment", works by eight artists, Zhang Ping, Jin Weihong, Liu Manwen, Lu Yuwei, Wang Zhenghong, Wang Qiqi, Chen Pei, and Goto Yako, are exhibited. Women in the history of art in the past were the objects of gaze, while women in the works of contemporary female artists are anti-gaze, anti-consumption, and anti-kitsch.
Artist Liu Manwen exhibits a group of her masterpieces "Hong Yan", in which she recounts the images of famous Shanghai celebrities such as Zhou Xuan, Huang Liushuang, Ruan Lingyu and other famous people in Shanghai in the thirties of the last century, and examines the survival and fate of women in the past century from the perspective of history. Liu Manwen does not only paint their delicate and lovely faces, but the sad fate hidden behind their faces and the impact of this fate on her soul, in them, the artist sees a common destiny of Chinese women.
Caption: Liu Manwen "Hong Yan - Zhou Xuan" oil painting on canvas
In the third section, "History and the Present", Hong Yihan, a post-95s artist from a family of artists, relies heavily on her superb darkroom technology in her video works, and she has her own personality and frankness: "In the male-dominated photography circle, I am often questioned 'What good photos can a little girl take?'" But creation is very subjective, and I don't need to follow the wishes of others. ”
In this exhibition, "women" is neither an "ism", nor a "genre" or "style", but a "method" of observation and thinking, which makes the creation of contemporary art richer and more diverse. Through several dialogue forums, the exhibition also attempts to move beyond the issue of purely female gender identity to a broader social context. This exhibition is directed by Shanghai Hongkou District Culture and Tourism Bureau and Hongkou District Women's Federation, and sponsored by Zhu Yizhan Art Museum and the Working Committee of Women Artists of Shanghai Artists Association. (Xinmin Evening News reporter Xu Yisheng)