Running – the New Contemporary
W Art Foundation is delighted to present “Running”, an exhibition dedicated to educating the regional audience on the cultural and ethnic richness and diversity in global contemporary art. The exhibition will take place at the Qingdao City Art Museum in Qingdao from November through December 2021. This will be one of the very first museum-level group shows in China which focuses on contemporary artists of multiple cultural and ethnic origins and identities. Featuring over 30 artworks, “Running” will be showing a number ofthe participating artists for the first time in China.
“Running” explores the cultural diversity and the array of creative powers of contemporary artists in the post-Internet era, bringing together paintings, sculptures, installations, and video works by established and emerging artists, while focusing mainly on painting. The exhibition will present various styles of painting, from figurative, surrealist, genre, Neo-expressionism, abstract, to conceptual, dadaist and realist. Through presenting artworks that—compared to those in the dominant Western cannon—are lesser know to the general public in China, “Running” aims to show a contemporary art history in-the-making, one that is becoming freer, more integrated, and more diversified. The traditional hierarchies and institutionalized stereotypes in art history are seen broken through by the artists featured in this exhibition. With the rapid rise of minority artists and female artists, our current era will certainly become a critical phase of transformation and development in contemporary art history.
The title—“Running”—is a metaphor which alludes to the growing inclusion of artists and artworks that existed only in the periphery in the centuries that passed into our current global art history. Much like a train on the track—although it will encounter ups and downs as well as resistance, the current global art history canon is ‘running’ into a new era with an open mind and open arms. Art is a universal voice of humanity and civilization which inspires thinking and love, and should not be identified by race or gender.
Participating artists:
Simone Leigh
Eden Seifu
Thebe Phetogo
Thina Dube
Alteronce Gumby
Ryan Huggins
Shaquelle Whyte
Soil Thornton
Stacey Gillian Abe
Rindon Johnson
Atanda Quadri Adebayo
Helen Teede
Zhang Yunyao
Zhao Wenhua
Yesiyu Zhao
Amanda Ba
James Jean
Chiharu Shiota
Haegue Yang
Izumi Kato
Otani Workshop
Larry Madrigal
Zoe Blue M
Bony Ramirez
Jonny Negron
Marcel Alcala
Most of the artists of African, South American and Asian descent participating in the exhibition either were born in the West such as the United States or the United Kingdom and Europe, or live and work in Western countries. The traditional cultures rooted in their upbringing communicate and collide with the cultures of Western countries. They not only retain the native artistic philosophy in their production, but are also influenced by Western art. They integrate the two cultures organically to form art, bringing an entire new creative space in contemporary art.
