Midtown, New York
Group Exhibition
Expressive Bodies
Liu Shiming Art FoundationAndrius Alvarez-Backus, Juliette Roy Batanero, Jorė Gritėnaitė, Samuel Horgan, Johanna, Yiting Li, Larissa McPherson, Jonathan Wenur, Jordan Winiski, Sachigusa Yasuda, Lite Zhang The Liu Shiming Art Foundation is pleased to present Expressive Bodies.This exhibition spotlights the work of 11 graduate and undergraduate students and recent alumni from institutions who partner with the Liu Shiming Scholarship program. The works in the exhibition share resonance with those of Liu Shiming, expressing the potential of sculpture to explore the human body through artistic gestures, materials, and narratives. The sculptures of Liu Shiming (1926-2010), one of the first generation of contemporary Chinese sculpture artists, are noted for their attention to the lives of everyday people, depicting individual relationships to memory, labor, emotion, and other humans through figurative work. Expressive Bodies exhibits 11 artists who are working with similar themes and a similar interest in the subtleties of humanity, although often with more modern materials and an awareness of 21st century politics. Where Liu Shiming primarily used clay and wood, artists in the exhibition use materials like aluminum, bandage clips, endoscopic cameras, carpet foam, and dunnage bags (bags used to protect and cushion cargo during transport). Accompanying each of their works, the artists have been invited to write responses to a Liu Shiming work from the Foundation’s collection, reflecting on how it might relate to their own practice. As one example, Alvarez-Backus reflects on Liu Shiming’s refined approach to duality. He writes, “Where Liu draws from the ancient Chinese tradition of wrestling to express the dualities of human experience (rivalry and tenderness, confrontation and communion), I approach intimacy through the lens of queerness, using mixed-media assemblage to articulate the contradictions of desire—namely, its capacity to both bond and estrange.” The Liu Shiming Art Foundation has established scholarship programs at over 40 universities and art institutions across five continents, supporting students studying art and art history at undergraduate and graduate institutions. Expressive Bodies showcases the work of students at seven institutions that are Liu Shiming Scholarship partners, namely: Columbia University, LABA Valencia (School of Art, Design & New Media), University of Georgia, Maryland Institute College of Art, Rutgers University, Queens College (CUNY), and Zurich University of the Arts. Six of the artists in the exhibition received a Liu Shiming scholarship, which are scholarships funded by the Liu Shiming Art Foundation for recipient institutions to reward to students.