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New Works By Chinese Women Artists On View At William Paterson University Galleries

 --Exhibition, in Conjunction with University’s 2013 Cross-Cultural Arts Festival: North and East Asia, addresses themes such as gender, personal identity, and psychological and spiritual life

A woman’s point of view on China’s current social and cultural context will be examined through the works of four contemporary Chinese women artists in an exhibition, A Woman’s View: New Chinese Art, which will be on view at the William Paterson University Galleries from March 4 through April 12, 2013. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on March 10, March 24, and April 7 from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free. An opening reception for the exhibit will be held on Sunday, March 3, from 2 to 4 p.m.

The exhibition is presented in conjunction with the University’s 2013 Cross-Cultural Arts Festival: North and East Asia, which highlights the University’s mission to encourage diversity, community outreach, and multiculturalism. Developed by the University’s College of the Arts and Communication, the festival seeks to feature the impact of the fine arts, music and cinema in facilitating cross-cultural empathy and developing global connections. All events are open to the public.

In the last three decades, Chinese women artists have experienced a crucial transformation in expressing themselves in a freer, more liberated manner and style. “As China introduced economic reform and moved toward openness in 1978, women artists were gradually exposed to both Western contemporary art and the feminist movement,” explains He Zhang, a William Paterson University associate professor of art, who curated the exhibition with Kristen Evangelista, director of the William Paterson University Galleries. “They became aware of their identities as individuals and as women, and began to experiment with new ways of expression from a female artist’s point of view.”

A Woman’s View: New Chinese Art presents works by internationally known artists Cui Xiuwen, Lin Tianmiao, and Tao Aimin, and emerging artist Huang Ying. “The artists in this exhibition have developed their unique styles to probe women’s psychological and spiritual life, women’s position as independent individuals, and women’s intellectual capacity of dealing with problems and philosophical issues such as humanity and the universe, reality and illusion, and more,” Zhang says.

In conjunction with the exhibition, a panel discussion on contemporary Chinese women's art will be held on Monday, March 25 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Galleries. Panelists include Shu-chin Tsui, associate professor of Asian studies and film studies, Bowdoin College; Lily Wei, independent art critic and writer; artist Huang Ying, whose works are included in the exhibition, and Professor Zhang.

A Woman’s View: New Chinese Art is one of two exhibitions on view concurrently in the William Paterson University Galleries. Also on view Play Ink-Ink Play: Chinese Opera Painting, an exhibition organized by the Liu Haisu Art Museum in Shanghai, China, that explores the link between Chinese ink painting and traditional Chinese opera.

This exhibition is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. The William Paterson University Galleries are wheelchair-accessible. Large-print handouts are available. For additional information, please call the William Paterson University Galleries at 973-720-2654.

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