Sigg Fellowship for Chinese Art Research Talk by Grey Matter 希克中國藝術研究資助計劃學人講座：灰質

As the Cultural Revolution came to an end in the late 1970s, a wave of conceptual art emerged in China under the influx of Western cultural influences. The history of conceptual art is mainly centered around the narratives of art collectives led by male artists, such as Xiamen Dada, Pond Society, and New Measurement Group. Exploring active art groups and key exhibitions in the ’85 New Wave Movement as entry point, the research undertaken by Grey Matter draws on archival materials, artist interviews, and artwork analysis that focus on women artists including Huang Yali, Li Shuang, Hu Bing, Liu Yiling, Shen Yuan, Qiu Ping, and Xiao Lu. The research outlines their artistic transition from painting to installation experiments and analyses their influence on the development of Chinese conceptual art.

This public talk ‘Undercurrent: A Feminist Retelling of Conceptual Practices of Women Artists in Contemporary China from the late 1970s to early 1990s’ will discuss the research findings by Grey Matter, retelling the female narratives in conceptual art and presenting Chinese contemporary art history in a more complex and diverse look.

The talk will be presented by members of Grey Matter, a research group, consisting of Yun Qiu, Xiaofan Wu, and Luqi Lin, that was founded in 2022 in Shanghai. Its current research focus is on the conceptual practices of Chinese female artists in the last three decades of the 20th century. The talk will be conducted in Mandarin, with simultaneous interpretation available in Cantonese and English. Click ‘register’ to sign up for the free talk.