“Once again, the museum in the small town in Gudbrandsdalen has managed to create an art event of international dimensions. That is impressive! This is not just an enriching and exciting exhibition, it is important. "Stepping Out" is an absolute must in Norwegian art summer!” — Mona Pahle Bjerke, Journalist from The National Broadcasting Corporation of Norway (NRK)
The exhibition Stepping Out! Female Identities in Chinese Contemporary Art is the first to present a broadly representative selection of works by China’s contemporary women artists that document, investigate, and, not least, unsparingly reveal personal and social fears, contradictions, and hopes in the tense field occupied by powerful tradition, party ideology, and economic upheaval.
Contemporary Chinese art has drawn great attention around the world over the past thirty years. Its remarkable series of comprehensive surveys, however, has always been dominated by men—artists, curators, art critics. Our project aims to correct this glaring imbalance, while pointing out the enormous diversity and relevance of Chinese women artists.
One of the first important corrections was made in 1998 by the Women’s Museum (Frauenmuseum) in Bonn, with their highly regarded show One Half of the Sky: Chinese Women Artists. Today, after nearly twenty-five years, a continuation is long overdue! Featuring more than one hundred artworks produced by a selection of twenty-six artists from mainland China in the fields of painting, sculpture, photography, film, performance, and installation, the exhibition offers an overview of female artists on the contemporary Chinese art scene from the late 1980s to the present day.
(Below: Exhibition views. Courtesy of Lillehammer Kunstmuseum)
Through an enormous wealth of perspectives, the artists shed light upon themes such as the role of women caught in between tradition and modernism, the gender discourse, the search for an identity of one’s own within a rapidly changing Chinese society, and, not least, the life of a woman artist in an art world dominated by men.
Our show is based on the current state of research, yet at the same time, it is understood that this is, in many respects, a project of discovery taking place in a field that is not readily comprehensible.
The exhibition will also be shown in Kunstforeningen Gl Strand in Copenhagen in Denmark and Museum der Moderne in Salzburg in Austria. It is supported by the Savings Bank Foundation DNB, Innlandet county administration and the foundation Fritt Ord.
Artists: Wen Hui, Lin Tianmiao, Xiao Lu, Yin Xiuzhen, He Chengyao, Yu Hong, Xing Danwen, Cui Xiuwen, Xiang Jing, Bu Hua, Peng Wei, Tao Aimin, Chen Qiulin, Li Xinmo, Cao Fei, Sun Shaok un, Ma Qiusha, Geng Xue, Hu Yinping, Fan Xi, Luo Yang, Liu Xi, Cao Yu, Chen Zhe, Tong Wenmin, Liang Xiu.
More information:
Stepping Out! Female Identities in Chinese Contemporary Art
From 13. May to 16. October 2022
Lillehammer Kunstmuseum
Stortorget 2, 2609 Lillehammer, Norway
