Source:
https://scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3109577/judy-chicago-and-stanley-whitney-art-show-shanghai-promotes
Lifestyle/ Arts & Culture

Judy Chicago and Stanley Whitney art show in Shanghai promotes new foundation to support young Chinese artists and women artists

  • The Longlati Foundation will earmark US$450,000 a year for the projects of Chinese artists born after 1990. It will open an art space in Shanghai next year
  • To promote its launch, the foundation is staging a show featuring works by feminist artist Judy Chicago and African-American artist Stanley Whitney
Guided by the Goddess is a piece by Judy Chicago on display at the “Call and Response” art show in Shanghai. Photo: courtesy of Judy Chicago and Salon 94, New York.

A foundation has been set up in Shanghai to support emerging and under-recognised artists in China.

The Longlati Foundation, launched by Singapore investor David Su and Chinese artist Chen Zihao, will earmark 3 million yuan (US$450,000) a year for the projects of Chinese artists born after 1990. Chen says the foundation has been in the works since 2017.

“Su has been working in China since the early ’90s and is [one of] the early investors in internet search giant Baidu and car rental app Didi. Buoyed by the success of Chinese tech corporations, he sees bright prospects for Chinese art, which he thinks can be exported to the whole of Southeast Asia like [how] Western art spread to Asia,” he says.

“Two years ago when [US-based Chinese artist] Cai Guoqiang staged a pyrotechnic art show in Florence in Italy, we were among the sponsors.”

EU 22 Earth Birth by Judy Chicago is on display at the art show in Shanghai. Photo: courtesy of Judy Chicago and Salon 94, New York.
EU 22 Earth Birth by Judy Chicago is on display at the art show in Shanghai. Photo: courtesy of Judy Chicago and Salon 94, New York.

The foundation will open a 700 square metre (7,530 square foot) art space in the Art Tower – a new landmark on the West Bund – in Shanghai in May, 2021. It will have two exhibition spaces, one of them dedicated to works by female artists from around the world. The first show in this section will feature works by Tala Madani, an Iranian-American artist known for creating paintings that look at Middle Eastern culture and gender issues.

Another show will feature artworks by Laure Prouvost, who represented France at the 58th edition of the Venice Biennale of Art, an international art exhibition, last year.

To promote the upcoming launch of its Shanghai art space, the foundation is staging art show “Call and Response” at the West Bund Art & Design Fair, featuring 22 works by American feminist artist Judy Chicago and African-American artist Stanley Whitney.

Among the Chicago works on show is EU 22 Earth Birth from her textile-based “Birth Project” series, made with the help of 150 needle workers. Made up of grotesque and abstract images of female bodies and reproductive organs, the series celebrates female empowerment by exploring the birth process.

Known for making in-your-face images that force a public confrontation with sexism, Chicago, 81, has inspired feminist motifs including Canadian artist Petra Collins’s menstruation-positive T-shirts and the pink “pussy hats” worn by opponents of US president Donald Trump’s election in 2016.

A painting from Stanley Whitney from his No to Prison Life paper series. Photo: courtesy of Stanley Whitney
A painting from Stanley Whitney from his No to Prison Life paper series. Photo: courtesy of Stanley Whitney

The works by Whitney, famed for his abstract multicoloured square canvases made up of irregular grids, include a painting from his “No to Prison Life” paper series, a protest against the unfair US judicial system and its arbitrary incarceration, without legal process, of African-Americans. The show premiered in an online exhibition on July 17 to coincide with World Day for International Justice.

Other works by Whitney displayed in the show include Listening to the Poets, one of the largest paintings created by the artist.

Chen says it’s the first major exhibition in China for both artists: “Those works are among the foundation’s collections. We hope by showing collections of works by well-known artists, more people will pay attention to our platform, which supports lesser-known artists.”

Listening to the Poets, by Stanley Whitney, is one of the largest paintings created by the artist to date. Photo: courtesy of Stanley Whitney
Listening to the Poets, by Stanley Whitney, is one of the largest paintings created by the artist to date. Photo: courtesy of Stanley Whitney

Although Chicago’s fierce feminist displays and Whitley’s focus on arbitrary detention could be seen as sensitive in China, the show’s curator, Sun Wenjie, is outwardly unconcerned about government censorship. She says the works can prompt public discussion about the meaning behind them.

Chen adds: “Tala Madani is also a boundary-breaking artist who will be of huge educational value to female Chinese artists. We want to support [artists with] different voices, views, [of different] genders and even sexual orientation.”

Sun says they will strive to show a diversity of cultures while observing procedural rules.

Chinese artist Chen Zihao co-founded the Longlati Foundation to support emerging and under-recognised artists.
Chinese artist Chen Zihao co-founded the Longlati Foundation to support emerging and under-recognised artists.

As Su is one of the investors in Chinese private rocket manufacturer i-Space, the foundation will also launch space-themed art projects. This is not unheard of – Chen says US space agency Nasa has long conducted collaborations with artists through its art programme.

“The projects can be paintings on the exterior of rockets, sending artworks into space and letting them orbit around the Earth, or putting art images into satellites for beaming back to the Earth.”

“Call and Response” will run until November 15 at Hall B, West Bund Art & Design Fair at West Bund Art Center, 2555 Longteng Avenue, Xuhui District, Shanghai.