Save As: Contemporary Chinese Art Born of Ancient Traditions

Cao Xiaodong. Leaders, 94 x 70 inches, 240 x 180 cm, Oil on canvas, 2008. Courtesy ArtSpace Virginia Miller Galleries, Coral Gables.

ArtSpace Virginia Miller Galleries - Coral Gables

November 2008 - February 2009

By Arelys Hernández

The Li Xiaofeng and Cao Xiaodong exhibition at ArtSpace Virginia Miller Galleries has allowed those in Miami interested in good art to enter into contact with works that truly express a balance between the traditional spirit and the creativity of our times, between meticulous execution and visual codes that convey so much more than they represent. The pictorial and sculptural show organized for the two Chinese artists was also a bridge between the imagination common to all artists and contributions derived from both commercial and political advertising, based on a correspondence in their propagandistic and manipulative ends. A revelation of the historic, the contrasting of different societies, indirect symbolic reflection on Chinese identity, a zeal for formal beauty and constructive equilibrium are distinctive hallmarks of the two authors.

Equidistant between free sculpture and mannequins used to advertise clothing, the trio of works by Li Xiaofeng (exhibited for the first time outside of China) constitutes an exquisite practice of art based on research and harmonious design.  The disconnect between civilizatory development and entrenchment in the past, which is nowadays part of Chinese life and conscience, is made manifest in his two women’s dresses and a man’s jacket. They are valuable examples derived from the imagination of one who knows how to combine the rules of fashion with fixed ritual behavior, converting the ancient object into an indicator of the dialogue with its inherited spirituality. This artist spent years gathering fragments of functionally symbolic tea and rice bowls from the Qing, Song and Ming dynasties, eventually sewing them together and turning them into the attractive clothing on display. Apart from the genius of shaping a new language with traditional materials, his “costumes” propose an open interpretation of images that could allude to the sumptuous style of emperors, the famine provoked by poor Maoist rice policies or the inclusion of Western modernity in the cultural weave of that Asian country.

In the gallery, Cao Xiaodong, bolstered by a solid curriculum vitae, displayed several of his paintings of meticulous finish and workmanship, referring as much to ancient crackling and xylography as to decoratively printed posters and papers. This painter constructs a discourse based on comparison and contrasting icons almost like a parallel montage reminding us of cinema and blending Social Realism with Pop Art. From there, pairs of situations, myths and symbolisms are alluded to simultaneously: sex and power, stardom and authoritarianism, prostitution and politics, freedom of opinion and violent censorship, pastoral environments and insanity, etc. Using the connotations of artistic language, he confronts and associates the conditions and signs of human existence under capitalism and under Chinese-style socialism.

Arelys Hernández: Graduated in Art History (University of Havana). Director and Curator of TeatroAreaStage Gallery in Miami.