Summer group show

Foundation: Summer Show features 8 young artists working in glass, ceramics and jewelry. Here's a sneak peek at what will be exhibited:

Huang Weiwei

Yang Meihua

Yuan Wenjuan

Kang Qing

This exhibit runs from July 3rd to August 25th.

As for the summer holiday, we will be closed July 20 to August 10.

Bowls for Beggars: Photos

Ceramic bowls created by Chinese artist Xu Hongbo for Swiss beggars, blogged about here.


More pictures of the Swiss beggars using ceramic bowls made by Chinese artist Xu Hongbo can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/mae2tp

The Swiss Beggars Ceramics (SBC) exhibit runs at the gallery L'Artelier Céramique in Lausanne until July 1.

Summer Conferences

We are slowing down for the summer here at twocities, but here are a couple of international shows and conferences in July worth noting.

Australian Ceramics Triennale, July 16 - 20, 2009

This national ceramics conference, in its 12th year, will be hosted in Sydney from July 16 to 20. Ceramic artists from around the globe are invited to present, exhibit and lead workshops, and the conference aims to promote international dialogue on the development of ceramic art in Australia. Two Chinese artists, Li Jianshen (Jackson Lee) and Chen Guanghui, will be participating this year.

This year's theme is 'Facing the Future' and focuses on the relationship between contemporary ceramic practices and the emergence of various global forces.


Glass Weekend at Wheaton Arts, July 17 - 19, 2009

Sponsored by The Creative Glass Center of America at Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center and the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass, this biennial event has been held since 1985. From July 17 to 19, this international symposium and exhibition brings together glass artists, collectors, galleries and museum curators for three days of exhibitions, lectures, demonstrations and hands-on workshops. A gallery exhibition features the most current works of over 200 international artists.

Proceeds from the weekend benefit the Creative Glass Center's fellowship program, which provides working fellowships to 12 individual artists, selected from around the world, each year.

Artist In Focus: Cheng Xiang

On our blog, we will periodically highlight various artists twocities works with. The first artist to be featured is Cheng Xiang, a pioneer in the Chinese contemporary glass art world.

Cheng Xiang is a young artist who explores color in her work, using the inherent characteristics of glass in optical playfulness. Her use of color and composition in glass pulls the viewer deeper into the object itself.

"In my opinion, glass has a special quality: transparency. This trait helps lead our thoughts from the material world to the spiritual arena--it is the medium to express that metaphor. Its energy is expressed through refraction and scattering of light, and the material itself expresses abstract beauty," says Cheng.

Cheng Xiang notes Colin Reid as the artist who has influenced her the most, with his innovative kilncast work. She also draws inspiration from her native culture and history, integrating her love of Chinese poetry and paintings with her passion for glass.

"Glass artworks combine the concepts of emptiness and fullness. The overlap of the glass language and my Chinese background leads the inspiration for my artworks," explains Cheng. She employs the techniques of mold casting and lost-wax casting in her process.

A graduate from the master's of glass art program at Shanghai University, Cheng Xiang stayed on at her alma mater to teach in the glass department at the School of Fine Arts. Her work (pictured below) was recently selected by a jury to be included in New Glass Review 30, an annual survey published by Corning Museum of Glass.

Title: Chinese Scenery - Lost Flower, Autumn
Process: Lost-wax casting
Dimensions: 31 x 6 cm
Year created: 2008

Jackson Lee: Reinterpreting Tradition

Article on ceramic artist Jackson Lee (Li Jianshen) is in the current issue of 'Ceramic Arts & Perception,' available on newsstands.

Jackson held a solo exhibition of his "Neo-Imperial" porcelain ware at twocities in October 2008 and is planning another solo exhibition this fall. Stay tuned!

Xu Hongbo: Bowls for beggars

Two months ago, Chinese ceramic artist Xu Hongbo arrived in Vevey School CEPV for an art exchange program. As he adjusted to life in Switzerland, he noticed the beggars on the streets and how the community interacted with them--a sense of courtesy and dignity even when money wasn't given. As a representative of China and Chinese porcelain, Xu Hongbo wanted to give something back to the Swiss community; he landed on the idea of creating ceramic bowls from Chinese clay for the beggars to use.

Hailing from Jingdezhen, the porcelain capital of China, Xu Hongbo decided to create the bowls from clay indigenous to his hometown. The bowls are designed with a cross-shaped opening, and Xu Hongbo's hope is that the bowls will bring both beauty and utility to the beggars' lives.

Artist's statement:
I named the bowls “SBC”, an acronym for Swiss Bowls with a Cross and Swiss Beggars’ Ceramics. In the Bible, you can read that God changes humankind like a potter transforms the pots on the wheel by his hands. Maybe the first or the last wish of beggars is just wanting a little bit of “change” in life.

The first ten bowls in this series will be exhibited at the gallery L'Artelier Céramique in Lausanne, and some of the beggars who will be using these bowls will be invited to the opening. The exhibit will run from June 10 to July 1.

Xu Hongbo received his bachelor's degree from Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute and his master's degree from the Fine Arts College at Shanghai University. His works often express his concern with social issues and human relationships.

Xu Hongbo's website (mostly in Chinese): http://www.hongboclay.cdd.cn/home.asp?m_id=80012