7th September 2023
Featured Exhibition: Sun and Moon
Luna Huang, founder of Huang Contemporary and member of the Maud & Mabel team, curates the exhibition Sun and Moon, which will be exhibited at The Goose Corporation Gallery in Wuhan, China from 16th to 30th September 2023. As an artist who grew up in China and is now based in the United Kingdom, Luna’s sensibilities of cross-cultural artistic interactions, confluences and divergence is translated into the conception of the show.
Photograph of Luna Huang @lunasue_art. (Courtesy Huang Contemporary @huang.contemporary).
Sun and Moon showcases the works of emerging young artists and the dialogue of contemporary artistic dialogues between the East and West. The title of the exhibition carries a dual meaning: the simultaneous visibility of the Sun, during daytime at one end of the world, and the Moon, during night time on the other end, from the time difference between the East and West; and the implication of new possibilities from the Chinese character "明", meaning bright / tomorrow, which is a combination of the characters "日" (day) and "月" (moon).
Photograph of Luna Huang @lunasue_art. (Courtesy Huang Contemporary).
The positive and hopeful undertone of the project aligns with the initial reason for its inception. Huang began the project when she received confirmation as a recipient of the Global Talent visa which would allow her to continue her stay in the UK, “a lot of people helped me along the way and I’m really grateful so I wanted to help other people in turn,” she explains during a conversation about the exhibition.
Artwork by Yifang Zheng, on view at Sun and Moon. (Courtesy Huang Contemporary).
With aspirations to offer a platform for exchange between emerging artists in China and beyond, Huang selected eighteen artists to be represented in the show among numerous submissions from an open call. All the artists are under thirty and have experienced the stall that came with the pandemic at a critical point in their starting careers, half of them are Chinese and the other half comprises a group of artists working in diverse geographical locations – the UK, Ireland, Italy, Russia and Colombia.
Artwork by Shijie Zhang, on view at Sun and Moon. (Courtesy Huang Contemporary).
Huang’s personal connection to China and the UK makes her sensitive to the gap in artistic dialogue between artists within China and beyond the country during the past three years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. By bringing the artists’ works together, she hopes to generate a sincere dialogue between emerging artists from and outside of China who have the shared experience of the disruption in communication from the pandemic in a highly interconnected world.
Artwork by Claire Shakespeare, on view at Sun and Moon. (Courtesy Huang Contemporary).
Her background of migration and exposure to both Chinese and Western culture, and ideas and approaches to art informs the selection criteria in the curation of Sun and Moon. She notes the differences in the focus of artists in and outside China, “I showcase these differences in the same exhibition in hopes that visitors can explore the commonalities in their artistic expression. For example, their subject matter or medium might be different, but their methods of expression might be the same. Underlying the layers of superficial differences, or even similarities, in the works of these emerging young artists is a pursuit of the same core values.”
Artwork by Zoey Hu, on view at Sun and Moon. (Courtesy Huang Contemporary).
As an artist herself Huang values a distinctive personal style which goes beyond skillful emulation and the emotional expression in an artwork, “I’m also drawn to colours, strong movement in composition and expressive forms, and especially works with a strong personality.” Her experience growing up in China makes her aware of its cultural heritage, and the specificities of artistic temperaments which result from the country’s socio-political and historical background. Knowledge of the context under which Chinese artists are working allows Huang to grasp the nuances in styles, motifs and expressions in the work by Chinese artists.
Artwork by Jack McGarrity, on view at Sun and Moon. (Courtesy Huang Contemporary).
In the words of the curtator of Sun and Moon: “The exhibition will present an earnest dialogue between young artists from the East and the West. We might reflect on the fact that despite being from different cultural backgrounds, the inspirations and aspirations pursued by young artists in their creative processes are remarkably similar. They draw from the essence of their respective cultures while transcending geographical limitations, collectively exploring the mysteries of human emotions and experiences.”
Visit Huang Contemporary's page for more information.
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