Market Forces: Erasure: From Conceptualism To Abstraction
Exhibition
16 May
15 Jul 2014
18/F, Academic Three (AC3) Building, City University of Hong Kong
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Date :
2014.05.16 - 2014.07.15
Location :
18/F, Academic Three (AC3) Building, City University of Hong Kong
Osage Hong Kong
4/F, 20 Hing Yip Street, Kwun Tong, Kowloon
Exhibition | ERASURE: FROM CONCEPTUALISM TO ABSTRACTION
Curated by Charles Merewether
Symposium | ART AND VALUES
Moderated by David Elliott
Co-presented by Osage Art Foundation & City University of Hong Kong
Market Forces is an annual event that is part of Osage’s non-profit initiative. The basis of the event is to question ‘value’: the 2012 ‘Market Forces, Whither Contemporary Art?’ asked whether we could find new paradigms for intellectual and artistic inquiry and debate, and for 2013, ‘Market Forces: The Friction of Opposites’ emphasized value in terms of moral or societal notions. For 2014, we have invited veteran curator Charles Merewether to curate the third ‘Market Forces; Erasure: From Conceptualism to Abstraction’ will be spread over two locations including Osage Hong Kong and City University. The exhibition will also be accompanied by a symposium moderated by David Elliot, entitled ‘Art and Values’ where invited speakers Leeza Ahmady, Kurt Chan, Biljana Ciric, Charles Merewether and Enin Supriyanto and respondent Lewis Biggs will examine the increasingly over-determined economic interpretation of the value of art. Both events are co-presented by City University of Hong Kong as part of the university’s 30th anniversary celebratory events.
Exhibition | Erasure: From Conceptualism to Abstraction
Curated by Charles Merewether
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Osage Hong Kong (Venue One) |
City University of Hong Kong (Venue Two) |
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Event Dates |
16 May 2014 to 30 June 2014 |
16 May 2014 to 15 July 2014 |
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Opening Hours |
Mon – Sat: 10.30 am – 6.30 pm Sun: 2:30 – 6:30 pm Closed on public holidays. Open to special appointments outside of these times. |
Mon – Sat: 10: 30 am – 7:00 pm Sun: 2:30 – 7:00 pm Closed on public holidays. Open to special appointments outside of these times. |
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Addresses |
4/F, 20 Hing Yip Street, Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong |
18/F, Academic Three (AC3) Building, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong |
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Preview Receptions |
5 – 7 pm Friday, 16 May 2014 |
7 – 9 pm Friday, 16 May 2014 |
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Artists |
Hong Kong: Au Hoi Lam, Tang Kwok Hin China: Song Dong, Yu Ji, Zhao Zhao Singapore: Ng Joon Kiat, Milenko Prvački, Jeremy Sharma, Grace Tan, Ian Woo Philippines: Ringo Bunoan, Nilo Ilarde, Bernardo Pacquing, Maria Taniguchi Japan: Masanori Handa, Kishio Suga South Korea: Shin Il Kim, Young Rim Lee, Mee Ai Om Indonesia: FX Harsono, Tintin Wulia Thailand: Nipan Oranniwesna |
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The basis of the exhibition is to question ‘value’ as assigned or measured by the global art markets; more specifically, it aims to critically engage with the increasingly pervasive conflation of aesthetic value with market price – a phenomena which has been exacerbated by the booming contemporary market’s general tendency to favour particular media, styles and ‘brands’. Art in this case is reduced to a vehicle for representation rather than a basis for exploring ideas and issues or a way of engaging with the world through the senses; in other words, subject matter takes precedence over the concept and materiality of works. The exhibition will feature artists from Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand. The creation of object based and conceptual work rooted in this region has a history that is often overlooked, and such work remains, to a certain extent, unexplored. The exhibitions will thus tease out the intrinsic aesthetic value and connections between works and practices in the region.
For docent-guided visits, please contact Ms Grace Lam at gracelam@osagegallery.com or (852) 2389 8332.
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Symposium | Art and Values
Moderated by David Elliott
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Date |
Saturday, 17 May 2014 |
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Time |
2 – 6 pm |
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Venue |
Wong Cheung Lo Hui Yuet Hall, 5/F, Academic Three (AC3) Building, City University of Hong Kong |
Starting from the general question of aesthetic values versus market price, speakers will each respond by focusing on the different conditions for art production within different localities, as well as the global art market, with a particular emphasis on the situation in Hong Kong and Asia. Drawing from similar issues of contention as the exhibition, the symposium will draw connections between different regions and their value systems, critically examining the mark et driven interpretations of works, and issues of representation versus intrinsic aesthetic values.
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Speakers |
Topic Descriptions |
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Charles Merewether is an art historian, curator and writer on modernism and has curated a number of exhibitions of major artists from across South America and Asia, including Central Asia. |
Erasure: From Conceptualism to Abstraction and Back The art market in Asia has come, in recent years, to dominate the arts scene in terms of what is seen and discussed. At the same time, there is an increasingly pervasive conflation of aesthetic value with market price – a practice that has been under researched and been paid little attention to. Taking the historical developments of the art scenes and markets in Japan from the 1960s to 70s, China since the mid 80s and Singapore in the last few years, the role of the market in such ecologies is evaluated. The twenty-two artists from across Asia (including Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) featured in the exhibition Erasure: From Conceptualism to Abstraction, act as case studies as exceptions to the rule of the Asian art market. |
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Biljana Ciric is an independent curator based in Shanghai and has presented numerous critically acclaimed projects. She is a regular contributor toBroadsheetand Yishu Journaland has been nominated for an ICI Independent Vision Curatorial Award in 2012. |
Chinese Business When Igor Zabel talks about the former Eastern European art context, he puts the museum on the top of the art system. However today, especially in China, the art market is on the top of art system, which changes both the focus and the inner dynamics of the field largely, including the protocols and relationships within the system where emerging artists’ first solo exhibitions occur in the commercial galleries, and all networks of the system: writing, museum exhibitions and media, and the standardization of the value of the works, which is very much in keeping with the demand of the market. Questions raised include what the artists strategies working within the system described above are, what role the curator plays in this and what exhibition making means. |
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Enin Supriyanto is an independent curator and writer, living and working in Jakarta, Indonesia. He has been curating exhibitions and contributing essays for various publications in Indonesia and abroad. |
Contingency of Art, Value and Market A Brief Look at the Indonesian Case By looking into the history of the arts ecology of Indonesia, it is possible to trace the development and relationship between two major “market forces”, or market forms, namely auction or market driven prices and large art events such as biennials and triennials and the impact of such forces on art and value. These two forces cannot be the sole factors that impact the development of art, and although they must be taken into account, they cannot be merely polarized as hazards or blessings. In fact, there are many examples of activities conducted by a “new wave” of artists, artspace/galleries, collectors, curators and art activists with new ways of collecting, creating and thinking that are creating various opportunities and activities that change such perceptions of art and value. |
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Kurt Chan is an artist and art educator; currently the director of the Master of Arts (Fine Arts) programme at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Chan was the chief editor for Hong Kong Visual Art Yearbook for several years, the Art director of ‘City Art Square’, and he is at present the advisor of the Asian Art Archive and the Yale-China Association. His research interest is in Hong Kong Art, Mixed Media and Public Art. |
Regulating Expectations: The Hong Kong Art Market and the Artist The value of art can be defined from multiple perspectives, between which there maybe discrepancies. Looking at the discrepancies from the perspectives of artists and collectors, in particular, may shed light on the system and our understandings of the topic. Of particular interest is also what the art market really means to local art practitioners in Hong Kong and how it influences their art practice; it is also therefore important to identify the strength and identity of Hong Kong art, paying particular attention to how it defines itself under the influence of mainland China and East Asia under current circumstances. The art market is also constantly shifting and evolving; making it key to identify new supporters from different sectors in Hong Kong that have a hand in further redefining such an art market. |
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Leeza Ahmady is an independent curator and educator noted for her foundational work concerning art practices in Central Asia. She directs the educational platforms AhmadyArts and Asian Contemporary Art Week (ACAW), which partner with multiple institutions in New York and elsewhere to contextualize the works of artists from all regions of Asia, including the Middle East. |
Contemporary Art as the Beginning of An Art that is of the World, for the World! Leeza Ahmady’s presentation will contextualize a number of individual noteworthy artists from Central Asia, South and South East Asia, and the Middle East, inquiring also if the art market has been or should be an influential factor in such art historical reconsiderations. Does or should the art market influence curatorial and art-historical works/framings? How do curators and art-historians navigate through the paradoxes of aesthetic value versus market value? Furthermore, how have migrations of artists alongside their exemplary diasporic successes contribute to the vibrancy of their local scenes, while fueling the emerging art markets phenomena? |
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Lewis Biggs is an independent curator, writer and cultural consultant. Previously he has held positions as Director of Liverpool Biennial and Director of Tate Liverpool. Curator ofFolkestone Triennial 2014 and co-curator Aichi Triennale 2013. International Advisor, School of Fine Arts, Shanghai University. |
Lewis Biggs will be speaking as respondent and provide more perspectives on the various issues raised. |
The symposium is open to the public. It will be mainly conducted in English and simultaneous interpretation (English-Mandarin) will be provided. For registration, please contact Ms Grace Lam at gracelam@osagegallery.com or (852) 2389 8332.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION CURATOR
Charles Merewether was born in Scotland and earned his Ph.D in Art History from the University of Sydney. He is an art historian and writer on modernism and contemporary 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 and at the ICAS, he has curated a number of major exhibitions of major artists from across South America 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 of Milenko Prvački – 40 Years (2013). He is also editor of the anthology co-published by Whitechapel Gallery and The MIT Press The Archive (2006) and co-editor of After the Event: New Perspectives on Art History (2010) and Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art: Experimentations in the public sphere in postwar Japan 1950-1970(2007). He is currently Visiting Professor of the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University.
ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM MODERATOR
David Elliott is a curator and writer who has directed contemporary art museums and institutions in Oxford, Stockholm, Tokyo, Istanbul, Sydney and Kiev. A specialist in Soviet and Russian avant-garde, as well as in modern and contemporary Asian art, he has published widely in these fields as well as on many other aspects of contemporary art. He is currently Artistic Director of A Time for Dreams, the IV International Biennale of Young Art, to open in Moscow in June 2014, co-curator ofPANDAMONIUM: New Media Art from Shanghai (on show in Berlin at present), and associate curator of the Hors Piste Film Festival in Tokyo. He was President of CIMAM (the International Committee of ICOM for museums of modern and contemporary art) from 1998 to 2004, and is currently President of the Board of Triangle Art Network/Gasworks in London, Chairman of MOMENTUM in Berlin, a member of the Asia Advisory Board of the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and Guest Lecturer in Curatorship at the Chinese University in Hong Kong. In 2008-10 he was Artistic Director of the 17th Biennale of Sydney and in 2011-12 directed the inaugural International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Kiev, Ukraine. He has also advised the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charitable Trust on the development of the Central Police Station heritage site into a centre for contemporary art.
ABOUT THE ORGANISERS
Osage Art Foundation was established in 2004 with three main goals – Creative Communities, Cultural Cooperation and Creative Capacity, and has since played an active role in developing education and training of young people, broadening cultural awareness and participation in artistic endeavours, nurturing creativity and critical thinking and fostering international cultural exchange. The Osage Art Foundation is now known and recognized by the local community and internationally as having initiated many pioneering projects.
The arts help us to understand who we are, where we come from, where we are going and what we want to be. They are an essential part of describing new information, new ideas and new values. The Osage Art Foundation aims to bring to the art world new voices, new vision, new ideas and new styles; to present art that spurs the imagination; to present work that addresses local issues, national concerns, and universal themes and work that celebrates diversity and difference. The Osage Art Foundation aims to celebrate the achievements of humanity together with its limitations and failures.
The Osage Art Foundation promotes and develops innovative practice in curatorship and research, knowledge building and in teaching and learning.
The Osage Art Foundation raises funds and supports a range of programmes that help young people come to a better understanding and appreciation of art and help improve relations between people of different cultures.
Osage Art Foundation is also committed to fostering cultural cooperation, improving understanding between people of different cultures and to developing creative capacity in every country that we work in. International cultural exchange programs facilitate deeper and better understanding between people of different cultures. We aim to help break down barriers between cultures while maintaining and preserving the things that make them distinctively different.
The current focus of the Osage Art Foundation is on developing deeper discourse in and around the arts and in the wider community. We believe that research, analysis, examination and promulgation of issues pertaining to society, contemporary culture and value by artists, writers, critic, curators and commentators will build better understandings of regional perspectives throughout Asia and beyond.
In May 2013 The Osage Art Foundation was honoured at the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards with an Award for Arts Sponsorship.
For more information, please visit the website www.oaf.cc.