Out of the Spotlight, Contemporary Chinese Art Exhibition curated by Liu Jian
March 13th – April 7th 2008
Artist’s Talk Reception: March 22nd, 3 – 9 PM
Brooklyn, New York - Ch'i Contemporary Fine Art is proud to host Out of the Spotlight, Contemporary Chinese Art, a group exhibition featuring paintings, photography, and installations by Liang Quan, Liu Li Yun, Maleonn, Xingze Yu, Yang Yan, and Zhang Ping, from March 13 – April 7, 2008. China’s artistic and economic expansion is illustrated in this group show curated by Liu Jian, where the anticipation of the future must reconcile itself with the traditions of the past and things are not always what they seem.

Join us on Saturday, March 22nd, from 3 - 5 PM, as part of Asian Contemporary Art Week (ACAW March 16 – March 24) for an artist’s talk by O Zhang, a curator’s discussion by Liu Jian, and a catered reception by M Shanghai, at the gallery’s Williamsburg location of 293 Grand St between Roebling and Havemeyer. The public is invited to attend this event and to visit the exhibition during gallery hours: Wed- Sun 11 AM - 7 PM and Mon 9 AM – 5PM. For more information contact the gallery at 718 218 8939.

About O Zhang
O Zhang was born in Guangzhou and is an artist working in photography and new media. A graduate of the Royal College of Art London and the Central Academy of Art Beijing, she moved to New York in 2004 and is based in Brooklyn. In 2006, O Zhang was nominated for the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards (Beijing) and was the winner of the Royal College of Art Photography Graduate Award (London). She has also been awarded a fellowship at the MacDowell Colony, a grant from the Wilson Centre for Photography and a Fuji Film Student Award. O Zhang has had solo exhibitions in London and Manchester and has been invited to lecture at Oxford University. Her work has been included in group exhibitions throughout Europe, America and China, including the Kunsthalle Museum (Hamburg), Kuntsmuseum (Bern), Fokwang Museum (Essen), Museum of Contemporary Art (Shanghai), and the Millennium Monument Art Museum (Beijing). Additionally, her work is in the collections of the Santa Barbara Museum (California), Clifford Chance Art Collection (London), The Millennium Monument Art Museum (Beijing) and other private collections including the Uli Sigg collection in Switzerland. O Zhang’s latest solo exhibition in May of 2007 at Peking Fine Art (Beijing) was listed as exhibition of the week in Time Out Beijing.

About the curator, Liu Jian
Liu Jian received his degree from the Art Institute of Beijing; taught at the Chinese Painting Academy and served as the director of the Shanghai Youth Artist Association. Since relocating to Canada, Liu Jian has served as the director of the Ontario Chinese Art Association and as the director for the Gallery of Ontario for Chinese Art. He has also shown in Italy, Taiwan, England, France, Spain, Germany, China and the United States. In addition to painting, Liu Jian has also begun to curate exhibitions. In 2000, he mounted an exhibition entitled “ Canadian Painting: 15 Contemporary Painters” for the Shanghai Art Museum. Then in 2004, he co-curated an exhibition of female painters for the Doulun Art Museum of Shanghai. Most recently in 2007, he curated “Asiana” for Artcore Gallery in Toronto.

About the Artists
Using ink on paper Liang Quan creates abstract minimalist works of art. For over thirty years Liang has been exhibiting in Asia, Europe, and the US. Liu Li Yun’s scenery installations made of silk float in space. A graduate of the Kent Institute of Art & Design in the UK, in 2004 Li Yun participated in Women’s Declaration – Contemporary Women’s Artists at the Shanghai Doulun Museum of Modern Art. Maleonn describes his photographic imagery as a microcosm of, “(his) spiritual world: complex and profound, kind and wicked, naïve and cruel, suspicious and trustful, painful and happy, all existing at the same time and becoming more real by virtue of their interaction.” Currently living and working in Shanghai, Maleonn has exhibited in numerous exhibitions in Asia, Australia, Europe, and the US. Xingze Yu’s playful and imaginative oil paintings have been exhibited in Europe and Asia. A transcontinental artist, Xingze Yu lives and works in Shanghai and Kassel, Germany. Yang Yan’s installations combine photographic landscapes and small totems sculptures made of natural elements. Zhang Ping’s paintings are narrative pieces about aging, beauty and its translation into our soul’s make-up. Exhibiting since 2002, Zhang’s work has been in group and solo exhibitions in Italy, Thailand, China, and London (Scope art fair).

About Ch'i Contemporary Fine Art
Ch'i Contemporary Fine Art, established in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1999 and directed by Tracy Causey-Jeffery is committed to exhibiting vibrant contemporary art by living artists: both mid-career and emerging. Ch'i exhibits works in two distinct styles: abstract, textural or fragmented figurative. Ch'i hosts 11-15 exhibitions annually with their artists coming from across America, Asia, Europe and South America. In addition to its own exhibitions, Ch'i participates annually in at least 3 international fairs. In 2007, the gallery participated in Fountain NY and the Bridge Art Fairs in Chicago, London, and Miami. In 2008, Chi will participate in the first Bridge New York art fair in March. Additionally, Ch'i and its artists have been published in Art World News, NY Arts Magazine, Art Forum, Art News, Block Magazine, New York Times, The Village Voice, New York Sun, LA Times, Korea Times and Art and Antiques among others. Gallery artists are included in the permanent collections of Kantor Fitzgerald, The Musee Elysée, The Museum of the City of New York, MOMA, the Whitney Museum, Exxon Energy, Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Bank of China, the Kohler Company, The New York Public Library, The University of Maryland, Healthlink, the Kimbell Museum, the National Gallery of Australia, The Houston Museum and the Klutznick National Jewish Museum among others. Ch'i director, Tracy Causey-Jeffery received her masters in art history from the University of London after interning at Sotheby’s auction house in New York City. Prior to opening Ch'i, she owned and operated The Finer Side Galleries in Maryland and Washington, D.C. for 7 years.