osage

osage hong kong
4/F, 20 Hing Yip Street,Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
T: 852. 2389 8332
E: info@osagegallery.com
W: www.osagegallery.com

PRESS RELEASE
To Arts and Features Editors
For Immediate Release
27th November 2014
Osage Gallery presents

IN A TIME OF LOVE AND WAR: LI XINPING
Curated by Charles Merewether
Opening Reception

06. 12. 2014
6.00 – 8.00 pm

Roundtable Discussion
With Li Xinping, Charles Merewether, Au
Hoi Lam, Jonathan Thomson and FrankVigneron

07. 12. 20142.30 – 4.00 pm(Consecutive interpretation for English,
Cantonese and Putonghua provided)Exhibition Period
Opening Hours

Venue

07. 12. 2014 - 04. 01. 2015
Mon – Sat: 10.30 am – 6.30 pm
Sun: 2:30 – 6:30 pm
Open to special appointments outside ofthese times.
Closed on public holidays.
Osage Hong Kong
4F, 20 Hing Yip Street,
Kwun Tong, Hong Kong

Curator Charles Merewether states, “[Li Xinping creates] elaborate scenes inwhich love and war seem inextricably tied to one another; a heightening of thesenses, their destruction, their intoxication and celebration: figures and mattermerge and separate and merge again – to make love, to make war – the unionof bodies.”
Following the presentation of In a Time of Love and War: Li Xinping in Shanghai,
the exhibition will travel to Osage Hong Kong. In a Time of Love and War: LiXinping traces the development of the artist’s career through the thread ofsensuality and the notion of a warring and dialogue of forces. The exhibition
showcases the dynamic, multilateral directions in Li’s art practice of more than adecade, featuring work from 2002 to 2014. Works such as The Butterfly Lovers
refer to Chinese folktale, yet is depicted in a structure and approach reminiscentof Klimt, showing an engagement with fabric and cloth, brought to the surfaceof the work itself. Elfland No. 8 on the other hand, captures an interplay offigures, which leads to a distinctive period in Li’s work, where interlocking
abstract forms such as in Infinity become key, departing from the subject matterof bodies and sensuality to one of the union and dialogue of aesthetic andmathematical logics.
In A Time of Love And War: Li Xinping also probes both the Asian and European
influences on the artist’s work that place Li in a unique position in contemporary
Asian art.
To accompany the exhibition, a roundtable discussion on Li Xinping’s art
practice will be held on the 7th of December, from 2:30 – 4:00 pm. Speakers
include Hong Kong artist Au Hoi Lam, independent curator Jonathan Thomson,professor Frank Vigneron of Chinese University of Hong Kong, as well as curator
Charles Merewether and Li Xinping. The discussion aims to expand the context inwhich the works of Li Xinping can be understood.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Li Xinping (b. 1959, Beijing, China) is an artist and scholar. He has been featuredin a number of solo exhibitions including Machine in the Body (Osage Gallery,Hong Kong, 2011), Trans+Fusion (Osage Gallery, Singapore, 2008), Of Harvest
Moons and Enchanted Lovers: Chinese Myths and Legends (Osage Gallery,Hong Kong, 2005), as well as a number of group exhibitions, including, Oriental
Visual --- Sino-South Korea Contemporary Art (Beijing World Art Museum, Beijing,China, 2007), SUSI: Key to Chinese Art Today – Exploration & Discovery (NationalMuseum of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines, 2006) and Enlightenment from theAncient State of Lou Lan (10th National Art Exhibition, China, 2004). Li currently
lives and works in Beijing, China.
ABOUT THE CURATORCharles Merewether was born in Scotland and earned his Ph.D in Art History fromthe University of Sydney. He is an art historian and writer on modernism andcontemporary art who has taught at universities in the United States, Mexico andSouth America, Australia and Singapore. He was Collections Curator at the Getty
Research Institute in Los Angeles from 1994 to 2004, Artistic Director and Curator
for the 2006 Sydney Biennale, Deputy Director for the Cultural District, Saadiyat
Island, Abu Dhabi from 2007 to 2008, and Director at Institute of Contemporary
Arts Singapore (ICAS), LASALLE College of the Arts from 2010 to 2013. Since 1991,
he has curated a number of major exhibitions of major artists from across SouthAmerica and Asia, including Central Asia. He has published extensively articles
and books including Ai Weiwei: Under Construction (2008) and Ai Weiwei: Beijing,Venice, London, Herzog & de Meuron (2008) and After Memory: The Art ofMilenko Prvački – 40 Years (2013). He has also co-edited After the Event: New
Perspectives on Art History (2010), Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art: Experimentations in thepublic sphere in postwar Japan 1950-1970, (2007).
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Au Hoi Lam graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (MFA 2004 &MPhil in Philosophy 2009). She works and lives in Hong Kong. Au regards her artobjects as ways of ‘the Care of the Self’: memorandum, keepsake, symbol,
prayer and contemplative medium etc. Recent exhibitions include Whomen: In
the Name of Asian Female Artists (Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, 2014),
My Father is Over the Ocean. Shanghai Postscript (Osage Shanghai, 2014), Time
Traveller, Au Hoi Lam and Sara Tse (Espace Louis Vuitton, Hong Kong,2014), Painting On and On 5. Taciturn (HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of CreativityGallery, Hong Kong, 2013), Au Hoi Lam: My Father is Over the Ocean (OsageOpen, Hong Kong, 2013), Open 15: International Exhibition of Sculptures andInstallations (Lido, Venice 2012), Definitions of Time: Paintings by Au Hoi Lam(Edge Gallery, Hong Kong, 2010), Lui Chun Kwong. You Are Here, I am Not.
(Osage Kwun Tong, Hong Kong, 2010), Reversing Horizons: Artist Reflections of theHong Kong Handover 10th Anniversary (MOCA Shanghai, 2007), Artists in theNeighbourhood Scheme III: When Words are Sweet…Paintings by Au Hoilam (Hong Kong Central Library and Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2006) and the Hong
Kong Art Biennial 2003 (Hong Kong Museum of Art, 2003) etc. Her works arecollected by Hong Kong Museum of Art and private collectors.
Jonathan Thomson is an artist, art historian, critic, independent curator, art
administrator and art writer. He holds a MPhil degree in Art History from theUniversity of Hong Kong. He has been working as an artist for more than 20 years
and his work is in private and corporate collections in Australia, Hong Kong, USA,UK and France. He has held solo exhibitions in Hong Kong (2010, 2011) andBangkok (2011, 2012) and was selected as a prize winner at the Kobe Biennale in2011. He has over 20 years of experience in public arts administration in Australiaand Hong Kong as Deputy Director (Strategic Development) and Head ofSecretariat at the Australia Council for the Arts and Deputy Secretary General ofthe Hong Kong Arts Development Council. In addition he has held senior posts
with the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and the Global University
Alliance. In 2000, he established Thomson Fine Art as an independent art
consultancy that offers expert advice on arts and cultural policy, research andanalysis of key trends, issues and opportunities facing the arts, strategic planningfor the arts sector, curatorial services and collections development.
Professor Frank Vigneron received a Ph.D. in Chinese Art History from the Paris VII
University, a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Paris IV Sorbonne Universityand a Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
He joined the Department of Fine Arts, CUHK in 2004, teaching courses on theHistory of Western Art, the theories of Modernism and Postmodernism in art, andChinese and Western comparative aesthetics. His research focus is on the historyof Chinese painting from the 18th century onwards and on different aspects ofcontemporary Chinese art seen in a global context. In 2010, he became Chair ofthe Hong Kong Art School Academic Committee as well as a member of theHong Kong Art School Council. He is also a member of the International
Association of Art Critics Hong Kong. Professor Vigneron is also a practicing artist.
He has held several solo exhibitions in Hong Kong and has taken part in local andinternational exhibitions.
ABOUT OSAGE GALLERYOsage Gallery was established in Hong Kong in 2004 and grew quickly to
become one of Asia’s largest commercial gallery groups. Osage has become
well known in the art world for its uncompromising support for the mostchallenging and critically thought-provoking contemporary art.
Osage Gallery is curatorially driven with a particular focus on contemporary
Asian arts. It aims to be a catalyst for the creative expression of the artists andthe active engagement of audiences by embracing a global, multidisciplinaryand diverse approach to the creation, presentation and interpretation of adiverse network of practices and works. It examines the questions that shapeand inspire us as individuals, and our cultures and communities through highquality programmes of research, exhibition and publication.
Osage operates a major space in Hong Kong in the fast developing central
business district of East Kowloon. Osage Hong Kong is in an industrial building,which can be configured for a variety of artistic encounters. The raw space
allows for the exploration and presentation of experimental and innovative works
in all media – including performance, installation, interactive multimedia andmoving images. Osage Hong Kong combines 10,000 square feet of interior
gallery space with 5,000 square feet outdoor terrace. Osage Shanghai iscurrently used for an artist residency programme and is comprised of two floorsof space, totaling 10,000 square foot. Sporting a five-meter high ceiling, Osage
Beijing is a 1,500 square feet space that houses a studio residency programme.
Osage Gallery has gained wide international recognition for the quality of its
programmes and was the first Hong Kong gallery to be invited to feature at theStatements section of Art Basel, Basel in 2011, the Spotlight section at FriezeMasters in London in 2012, Arte Fiera in Bologna, Italy, 2014, Art Cologne inGermany, 2014, and is one of the first Hong Kong galleries to participate inMoving Image New York, 2014. Osage has also participated in Art Hong Kongfrom 2008 – 2012 and at Art Basel, Hong Kong for 2013 and 2014.
www.osagegallery.com
Media Enquiries:
Grace Lam: gracelam@osagegallery.com | +852 2172 1635 | +852 2389 8332
Please download high res images from the following links:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xjru54n8zvqlzzi/AABRM9r9BVzq2ce2P6yY83WRa?dl=0
http://myaccount.dropsend.com/file/bbb174fceea625ad

Li Xinping
The Butterfly Lovers
2005
oil on canvas
117 x 87 cm
Image courtesy of the artist and Osage Gallery

Li Xinping
Xunling Chant2012
oil on canvas
246 x 246 cm
Image courtesy of the artist and Osage Gallery

Li Xinping
Yixing Theory2013
oil on canvas
93 x 110 cm
Image courtesy of the artist and Osage Gallery

Li Xinping
Infinity2014
oil on canvas
50 x 40 cm
Image courtesy of the artist and Osage Gallery

Li Xinping
Elfland No. 82008
oil on canvas
250 x 200 cm
Image courtesy of the artist and Osage Gallery