We see women drowning in sadness, ideals and existence
HER POWER Global Female Contemporary Art Online Exhibition 2021 · Chapter Fourteen
Curated by
(Click to see their preface and forword)
2021 · HER POWER
The prologue of the "Life．Blossom” Exhibition - "Her Power" Online Exhibition, was jointly initiated by HK Art of Nature International Female Art Research Society, Art Life Foundation, and female artists and art institutions.
The first stage will bring the recommendations from our academic consultants, invited curators and International Women Artists Federation as pilot. Up to now, we have received works from around 120 artists from more than 30 regions (including oil paintings, ink paintings, installations, sculptures, photography, digital images, etc.).
The call for works is still open to public. The online exhibition will also be published by region, theme, category, subject, or material.
The content of the online exhibition will be presented on Art of Nature’s official website and the platform of "Her Art", Facebook, and overseas online platforms.
HER POWER
Art of Nature Intrenational Female Art Online Exhibition
Orgainisors :
HK Art of Nature International Female Art Research Society, Art Life Foundation
SCENE 9+9/ part 1 · FOURTEEN
The Second Scenery · Body and Battlefield · Reality and Illusion
Ship and Wind · Breathing · Repair and Rebirth
Zhen Guo
THE SECOND SCENERY
Guo , as the special curator of this exhibition, is a creator who has been committed to promoting international feminist art research for many years and is also a firm feminist art language.
Both his representative works "Punching Bags", "Mother and the Earth", "Encounters in the Garden of Eden", or the new works "Daily Mask" and "Believe in Yourself" during the epidemic are firmly rooted in feminist introspection and equal rights. Materialized spiritual symbols confront, express and awaken the value and power of women in society.
ZHEN GUO
Artist, independent curator. Graduated from the Chinese Painting Department of the China Academy of Art in 1982 and stayed on to teach in the Chinese Painting Department. In 1986, Guo went to the San Francisco Art Institute to study.
In 1987, Guo went to the York University College of Art as a visiting scholar, and in 1988 set up her own studio in New York. Guo is one of the earliest explorers of ink art after the reform and opening up, and one of the pioneers of Asian American contemporary ink art. She has been committed to the research and exploration of international contemporary art for a long time. International auction companies such as Sotheby's have promoted her works several times.
Important exhibitions:
2021 "Exorcise Evil, Existence-Guo Zhen and Qiu Ping Double Solo Exhibition", Inselgalerie Gallery, Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2020 "Very Strong-Guo Zhen Natsuki Takauchi Double Solo Exhibition", PeepShow Space Gallery, New York, USA
2020 "Her Ink Painting", Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2019 "Identity Crisis", Royal Gallery, New York, USA
2019 "US-China Academy Art Summit", Pennsylvania State University Park Campus, Pennsylvania, USA
Artist Statement
Feminism is the only thought that can save women to fight for equality. I think that as a female artist, I shoulder the incumbent social responsibility to help the society understand and clarify the importance and rationality of women's self-worth and women's social value.
——Guo Zhen
Mother
900cm x 225cm x 30cm
Cotton cloth, silk
2016
"When we leave the natural scenery in visual projection and identification, we find that the multiple constructions and interpretations of the so-called "natural scenery" also come from the wisdom and thinking of the second natural scenery created by the artist.
The installation "Mother" by artist Guo Zhen is a landscape that exudes maternal light. The artist juxtaposes hand-made female breasts with colorful fabrics in a huge space ritually.
The visual tension of this second natural landscape further highlights the reason for the existence of female gender identity and the presence of women’s equal power and discourse.
The cultural temperament of artist Guo Zhen's large-scale installation "Mother" has given the world the best answer: that is, the grand pattern and vision of cultural development in modern life require the presence and transcendence of female gender identity."
——Tong Yujie
"Mother- Earth", Ink on rice paper+multi media, Acrylic289cm x 189cm x 25cm, 2019
Believe Yourself
65cm x 68cm
Knitting
2021
Daily Mask
65cm x 68cm
Knitting
2021
Punching Bags, Muti Media 180x60x60cm (each piece), 2013-2018
"The artist borrowed the most common physical fitness equipment in modern life-leather sandbags to transform it, using original large floral cloth and stitching meticulously to form a breast-filled enclosure. Boxing is the most primitive function due to the external software symbol. Changes are taking place.
It is a metaphor that the primitive civilization pillar is wrapped in the love and pain of reality, that is, the male's inherent autocratic patriarchy causes both losses in the constant sacrifice of women.
In the spectacular jungle formation, the artist stands on a feminist political stand and uses humorous language to trigger people’s rethinking of the symbiotic relationship between male and female genders and identities and the existence of social contradictions between them."
——Zhao Wen Ling
Arlene Rush
BODY AND BATTLEFIELD
Arlene Rush's art works often span multidisciplinary fields, provocatively digging into contemporary politics and culture to reveal race and gender differences, excessive consumption of capital, threats to human rights, and resistance to progress.
One of the series of works "My Body As a Battleground" conveyed her concern: my body is a battlefield, recording her experience with breast cancer in 2011. Rush’s artistic journey confronts the unknown dialogue that shapes society, feminist ideology, and our political participation.
ARLENE RUSH
Her works are represented by Homberg Fine Art Gallery in New York and are widely exhibited in museums, universities and galleries around the world. In 2011, she received funding from the Pat Hearn and Colin De Land Foundation, and in 2020, she won the Carole Eisner Sculpture Prize (Carole Eisner) Award For Sculpture, since then, her artistic career and her dedication to creation have been recognized.
Her works are represented by Homberg Fine Art Gallery in New York and are widely exhibited in museums, universities and galleries around the world.
Selected Exhibitions:
2021 "Inaugural Summer Salon”, Curated by Francesca Arcilesi and Norma Homberg, AHA Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY
2021 “EVERY WOMAN BIENNIAL”, Curated by C. Finley, Superchief Gallery NFT, New York, NY
2020 "Darkest Before Dawn: Art In A Time Of Uncertainty”, Curated by Raul Zamudio and Ethan Cohen, Ethan Cohen Kube, Beacon, NY
2020 "Someone Will Remember Us-Even at Different Times", Cultural Laboratory of Plaxall Gallery, New York
2013 "Twins: Just A Memory”, Michael Mut Gallery, New York, NY
2005 "Fragments, Parts, & Pieces - The Sum Of The Whole”, The Center For Emerging Visual Artists, Philadelphia, PA
Artist Statement
"Reflecting on the political state and the challenges faced as a woman in a sexist atmosphere is the fundamental source of my work and it is essential for me to portray these historical moments."
——Arlene Rush
Yes We Can, 2020. Digital archival print, 48’’h x 48’’ w
Head And Shoulders II 2012. Resin, fiberglass, acrylic, wood,
78’’h x 9 1/2’’ x 4 3/4’’d
Me Too, 2020. Resin, flook velvet, wood board, metal gold leaf, crystals, and digital
Archival collage
12’’h x 12’’w x 1 1/2’’d
In Waiting, 1999-2004. Resin, fiberglass, glass foam, metal, wood, steel and acrylic, 57’’h x 43’’w x 30’’d
A Stitch In Time. 2012 Gauze, thread, acrylic medium, and glue, 12’’ x 11’’w x 5 3/4’’d
Reflections Of Self II (Love Yourself Project) 2013
Digital print
Twins Madame X
2020.
Ultra premium photo paper luster, Edition1 of 2,1 AP, 43’’h x 31’’w
Seen And Unseen (Framed), 1999. Digital print on matte paper, 4 ¼" h x 3" w
Xiaowei Chen
REALITY AND ILLUSION
In this online exhibition, Chen Xiaowei will bring together sculptures created in 2019, 0.3mm pen-and-pin paper paintings, video performances and music and integrated cross-media work "ReBecoming II".
This is a roaming and dialogue about subconscious space and psychological space. Self-doubt, confusion, wandering and scrutiny, sprawling cruelty and indifference, exploring the temperature of the subconscious rushing into the tide, like a tunnel about to be melted or swallowed by light, projecting the drama of illusion and the helplessness of reality.
XIAOWEI CHEN
Xiaowei Chen's work includes video, drawing, and sculpture. She explores natural environments, natural disasters, human thought, and the interconnectivity between the three.
Xiaowei Chen (born 1978) graduated from the Institute of Graphic Communication in Beijing, China. From 2000 to 2005 she worked in television production and produced and directed independent documentary films. She was a guest lecturer at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She was awarded the Artadia NY Artist Residency at ISCP in Brooklyn, NY; The COOHAUS RESIDENCY ARTIST FOR 2013, New York, NY.
Selected Exhibitions:
2021 PULSE 2021, AroundSpace Gallery, Shanghai, China
2020 Solo show [ Rebecoming ] , PeepShow Space, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Art Olympia Prize，ART OLYMPIA 2019 international open art competition，TOKYO Metrepolitan Art Museum, Tokyo,Japan
2019 Innovative Women in the Visionary World, Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY
2018 “Pop Goes The Wesel” ,Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY
Artist Statement
"All day fighting, disguise, vigilance, hypocrisy, pandering. My pen outlines, splits me up into countless copies to face everyday troubles. Behind a dream come true, is a soul with stinging pain. The sting can be mended but the stinging would not stop. Split, reunite, the body blended into nature in the whirlpool, forming a spiral of self-healing, from which I have been reborn and get examined again.. "
——Xiaowei Chen
Video single frame screenshot
"Xiaowei Chen applying her considerable artistic talents to sculptures, drawings, and video, she surgically peels back the layers in which humanity shrouds its heroic myths, every work she creates is done with a precision of focus and dedication to detail that is exemplified by her drawing technique- she utilizes incredibly small works that obviously rake months to coalesce into a final image. Her dedication and discipline allow her to build a storyline with heart and content, not just technical prowess."
——William Norton, (New York Art Curator，The Director of The Gallery LTD, New York USA)
Rebecoming, 30x33inch, Ink on paper, 2019
"Xiaowei Chen dances her way through the lines, extending the idea of what traditional drawing can be. She daringly intertwines drama with everyday life events, incorporating her own emotions and perceptions towards life and the world. Just like a pupa completes its metamorphosis using internal energy to split the cocoon to become a butterfly, Xiaowei’s creativity is from inside. In her Artist Statement, she mentions that life is “all day fighting, disguise, vigilance, hypocrisy, pandering” and her pen “outlines, splits” her up and helps her “face everyday troubles.” Her art is her weapon to defeat the banality of life."
——Linlin Chen,(A freelance art writer based in New York. She has been writing art critics, exhibition reviews and artist interviews for many publications)
Sucker flower, Rebecoming, 1.5x15.x1m, Mixed Media, 2019
Monica d. Church
SHIP AND WIND
Monica d. Church is an artist and curator. She is good at finding the lofty value in seemingly ordinary and humble objects; she is also keen on painting and collage practice in the studio, and she is inspired by collecting all kinds of textiles, fabrics, and pieces of paper to create-from street garbage, Joss paper to lottery tickets, boat canvas, etc.
MONICA D. CHURCH
Born and raised in Middlebury, Vermont, Monica d. Church has lived in New York’s Hudson Valley for over two decades. Church received her BA from Bennington College and her MFA from The University of Kentucky. She works in painting, photography, collage, printmaking, and installation, as well as curating and designing exhibitions.
She is the Advisor to PHOCUS and supervises The Baldeck Photographic Center at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY.
Selected Exhibitions:
2021 More Than a Sketchbook: The Diary of an Artist, The Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy NY
2018 WooHoo! Graffiti in Vietnam, The Great Studio, Poughkeepsie NY
2014 24,000 Nautical Miles: Photos from a Circumnavigation, Palmer Gallery, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie NY
2013 Selections: From the Studio, 1995-2010, The Gallery at The State University of New York Administration Building, Albany NY
2012 From the Studio, 1995-2010 (catalog), Washington Gallery, Dutchess Community College, Poughkeepsie NY
2010 Walk on By…Photographs, Palmer Gallery, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie NY
Artist Statement
"I wanted to create a layered, fractured picture plane, so I began to stretch and paint on the remodeled sails. The inherent architectural elements of sails, such as the hard-edged structural lines created by Kevlar and carbon fiber and the transparency of the materials, provide a system for me to explore inside. In the tradition, ships are called women, and these works are connected with the theme of this exhibition, "Her Power". In a literal sense, "she" is the strength of the ship, which comes from the "wind" on the sails. The reconstruction process and geometric patterns especially adopt traditional female handicraft forms that are not valued by society, such as quilting, cross stitch and sewing repair."
——Monica d. Church
Peacock Aglais io, 2020, 52 x 30 in, Acrylic on composite sail material, yarn
Serene
2021
24 x 18 in
Acrylic & reinforced monofilm on composite sail material, canvas
Criss Cross
2020
52.75 x 36.5 in
Acrylic on composite sail material
Gold Swift, Phymatopus Hecta, 2019, 22 x 16 inches Acrylic on composite sail material
Violet-Grey Study #49
2020
5.25 X 4 3/8 inches on 11 x 10 inch paper
Acrylic on Rives BFK
Violet-Grey Study #38
2020
5.5 x 4.5 inches on 11 x 10 inch paper
Acrylic on Rives BFK
Violet-Grey Study #17, 2020, 5 7/8 X 4 5/8 inches on 11 x 10 inch paper, Acrylic on Rives BFK
Zelene Jiang Schlosberg
BREATHING
Jiang uses cutting and superposition to create between painting and sculpture, exploring the rhythm of three-dimensional space. Here, the four picture frames are combined into a four-part note, which is described in the space-and the breath that passes through it -the days are torn by the wind, jumped intermittently by the clouds, stitched by the shadow of the tree, translated into a secret, an experience leading to her world .
ZELENE JIANG
SCHLOSBERG
Born in Yongzhou, Hunan, Zelene Jiang Schlosberg graduated from Beijing Normal University with a master's degree in 2001 and now lives in Chicago, USA. Her practice uses techniques of cutting and superposition to create works that straddle painting and sculpture, actively exploring spatial perception. In Jiang Schlosberg’s art, space – and the air that passes through it - is transformed into an aesthetic experience which may be read in quasi-musical terms. She has participated in numerous international group exhibitions and has conducted a number of cooperative projects with American avant-garde musicians.
Selected Exhibitions:
2021 " Precipice " (East Central College, Illinois, 2019), “Air’s Chamber" (Woldt Gallery, London)
2019 " Interim Landscape " (Northern Central College, Missouri)
2012 "On a Sunny Afternoon, " (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Artist Statement
"The act of cutting canvas manifests immediately and intimately. The momentum of the blade as a gesture translates to direct emotion. I see the gestures in my work breathe, run, struggle, fly, halt, and escape. As nature's light goes in, shadows are cast on the wall. Between the tension and illusion of real and unreal, the canvas feels reminiscent of memories, of yearning and blurry screams."
——Zelene Jiang Schlosberg
Ligament, canvas, acrylic, thread, 102x102x6.35cm, 2021
"In Zelene's art, space is transformed into an aesthetic play with the air that passes the musical instruments to evoke the sound that expands in time to create space. Schlosberg's newest artworks from 2020 and 2021. The artist explores new perceptions of space, narratives, colour and figuration, but the music and implementation of the line as motive and material are still important references.
A general sense of anxiety pervades - the canvases have been harmed, after all, even if an optimistic colour palette is trying to maintain a brave face. An array of techniques (stitching, embroidery, script) are employed in the service of materials including beads, paper, and wire. A multiplicity of textures, combined with three-dimensional tendencies, help make the role of natural light central to interpretation. Amorphous shapes emerge, rearrange, and suspend themselves, complicating the sense of dimensionality.
As in a dream, the emotional dimension of colour stimulates an intuitive response. Zelene has created labyrinthine narratives of abstract, figurative, and mystical configurations in a world that is simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar. Facing the pandemic in this real world, with unexpected developments and an invisible enemy for the people, the artist specifically engages the human world, the surreal world of creative thinking and making, reacting to the uncertainty of time that suddenly overlays the world. When the comfortable real world becomes unfamiliar, the artist travels into the realm of the subconscious and comes up with characters that have been forgotten. They now populate the space of installations, resting in the floral structures or new architectural spaces of the cut screens and guard us."
——Dr. phil. Isabella Woldt, 2021
Askew, thread, canvas, nail and ink, 56x53x7cm, 2020
Tendon, canvas, acrylic, thread, 61x61x6.35cm, 2021
Testament, canvas, acrylic, thread, 61x61x6.35cm, 2021
Four Seasons, thread, canvas, nail and beads, 61x53x5cm, 2020
"The white Four Seasons are based on the interpretation of space, the freedom and spontaneity of creation, the ease between twisting, scratching, sewing and cutting. The years are like the lines of a song, life becomes more abundant because of the purity, Mies van der Rohe has a saying "Less is More.”"
——Zhao Wen Ling
Marcia Finks
REPAIR AND REBIRTH
Marcia finks has been an artist for 35 years. She began her career studying nursing , then furthering her education receiving her BA in Art History.
She has always been intrigued by metal graphics and their symbolism of popular culture. She explores themes of trauma, childhood and beauty. Her work is a statement of surviving abuse and the journey to putting disparate parts together to create an object of beauty.
MARCIA FINKS
Now based in Hudson Valley, New York, Finks has won many awards in juried shows throughout the United States. Her work is collected by people all over the world, having appeared in Vogue Living, Newsweek, the Chicago tribune, Detroit Free Press, New York Times and Wall Street journal. She has also designed book covers for feminist authors.
She has worked with the actor, Robert Redford, designing rugs, decorative art and candles for Sundance. She has designed pieces for the holiday windows of Bergdorf Goodman on fifth avenue in New York City. Her work has appeared in numerous television series and movies.
Artist Statement
"Art is the duel between the past and present. It is the language of the unconscious, interpreted solely by the creator. An artist draws on memory and states of awareness to confront what words cannot. Memory drives the artist to build a kind of architecture to purge and understand what has occurred in early life. It is the unraveling of the knot."
——Marcia Finks
Heart, 2020, metal, 50x50x50 cm
Queen-1, 2021, Silver/ Metal/ Ceramic+multi material, 100x40x30cm
－The End－