Organized by the Crow Collection in Dallas, this exhibition blurs the lines between photography and the art of Chinese ink painting
The collaborative works of a renowned painter and an acclaimed photographer are the focus of Landscape Relativities: The Collaborative Works of Arnold Chang and Michael Cherney. The Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas will premiere the exhibition Feb. 25 - June 25, 2017, in its Gallery One exhibition space in the Dallas Arts District.
In this exhibition, painter Arnold Chang (Zhang Hong; b. 1954) and photographer Michael Cherney (Qiu Mai; b. 1969) stretch and play with the relationship between the two media of painting and photography and the history and principles of Chinese ink painting. The exhibition – organized by the Crow Collection of Asian Art and curated by Dr. Jacqueline Chao, the Crow Collection’s curator of Asian art – will feature a selection of both their individual works along with new collaborative pieces to be exhibited publicly for the first time.
As a New Yorker living in China (Cherney) and as a Chinese-American living in the U.S. (Chang), both are engaged in a lively dialogue while practicing within Chinese and Western artistic modes, challenging categorizations of Chinese and American art and identity in today’s increasingly globalized world.
“The Crow Collection of Asian Art is very proud to have organized this exhibition showcasing the innovative works resulting from the partnership of painter Arnold Chang and photographer Michael Cherney,” said Amy Lewis Hofland, executive director of the Crow Collection of Asian Art. “Not only are the works breathtakingly beautiful, but they provoke thought as they flip pre-conceived notions about artistic origins and inspirations.”
Cherney, who travels throughout the world photographing subjects that include landscapes, chooses excerpts from his film photography to inkjet print and embed onto blank sheets of textured paper to send on to Chang. Upon receipt, Chang will sit with the sheet, not knowing where the excerpt is from and expand the photographic image into a larger landscape with brush and ink. The resulting work is sometimes based on an instant association with a historical Chinese painting or is, at other times, based purely on imagination. Their collaborative process and work juxtaposes notions of fast and slow, of real and imagined, and brings forward how technology continues to change our ways of seeing.
This is a show that not only considers conceptual and philosophical ideas of representation, but also of materiality – the graininess or smoothness of the paper, the juxtaposition of paper upon paper, and the ghostliness of ink and collage. Individually and together, their works are distinctive in the way that perspective is constantly challenged through the medium of ink, whether printed or by hand. The viewer must piece together what they are seeing – is it a photo, a painting or both?
“The collaborative works of Arnold Chang and Michael Cherney are simultaneously timely and timeless, contemporary and traditional,” says Dr. Chao. “Through this exhibition we invite all visitors to become immersed in their natural and fantastic landscapes, to delight in their plays with ink and photography, and to develop new perspectives on Chinese art and the world at large.”
Artists with backgrounds that surprise
Michael Cherney (Qiu Mai) was born in New York but has resided in China for decades. Photographer, calligrapher and book artist, Cherney’s work is done with great sophistication that draws on the subtleties of China’s most scholarly and esoteric traditions. Based in Beijing, he is a successful artist whose works have been collected by The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Asian Art (the first photographic works ever to enter the collection of that department). Jerome Silbergeld, P.Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Professor (Emeritus) of Chinese Art History at Princeton University has written of Cherney “one would be hard-pressed to find a ‘more Chinese’ artist than Qiu Mai…[His] art is less provocative than it is intellectually engaging, meditative and often simply beautiful….Cherney’s work is the cutting-edge demonstration of artistic globalization: if Asian artists can so readily ‘come West,’ then what is to prevent large numbers of future Western artists from 'going Asian’? Or, like Qiu Mai/Michael Cherney, going both ways at once, both American and Chinese, modern and traditional.”
Cherney’s works can be found in numerous museums and major private collections, including Princeton University Art Museum. His works also have been included in exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Nelson- Atkins Museum of Art, Asian Art Museum, The Getty Research Institute, Peabody Essex Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Yale University Art Gallery, Middlebury College Museum of Art and the Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College.
Chang (Zhang Hong), alias Juchuan, was born in 1954 in New York City. He studied art history with Professor James Cahill and holds a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado.
Primarily a landscape painter, Chang studied painting and connoisseurship with famed painter, collector and connoisseur C.C. Wang (Wang Jiqian), for 25 years. He also studied with Kuo Yen-ch’iao in Taipei and Wang Chi-yuan in New York. His landscape paintings have been exhibited internationally and are in the permanent collections of many museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, British Museum, Asian Art Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Brooklyn Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, Norton Museum of Art, Crocker Art Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, Princeton University Art Museum and Harvard Art Museums.
Chang has previously taught Chinese art at the University of Colorado and San Francisco City College, Connecticut College and Arizona State University. In addition to having organized several exhibitions, he has authored a book and numerous exhibition catalogues and articles on Chinese painting. Chang served for many years as vice president and director of Chinese paintings at Sotheby’s and was formerly a painting specialist at Kaikodo in New York.
Other activities celebrate the exhibition
During the exhibition at the Crow Collection of Asian Art, a slate of supporting experiences will be presented for both the public and Friends of the Crow Collection, including:
Members’ Reception
March 2, 2017 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Exclusively for Friends of the Crow Collection, this cocktail and hors d’oeuvres reception features an artist’s talk, tour and mingling with artists Michael Cherney and Arnold Chang, other supporters and the museum’s curatorial team. Membership starts at just $65; to join visit crowcollection.org.
Artist 2 Artist Conversation
March 3, 2017 6 p.m. - 11 p.m.
This conversation experience was created to allow local artists and enthusiast to interact directly with artists Michael Cherney and Arnold Chang to explore ideas around collaboration. Free and open to the public, seating limited and reservations required. Cash bar. Visit crowcollection.org for more information.
Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family SOLUNA International Music and Arts Festival Collaboration
May 16 - June 4, 2017
Grammy® Award-winning composer and pianist Henri Scars Struck will create a meditative soundscape, confronting tradition and contemporary art practice, and Eastern and Western sensibilities in connection with the exhibition. This project is co-commissioned by the Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family SOLUNA International Music and Arts Festival. For more information visit https://www.mydso.com/SOLUNA.
The Crow Collection of Asian Art is open Tuesdays - Thursdays (10 a.m. - 9 p.m.), Fridays - Saturdays (10 a.m. - 6 p.m.), Sundays (noon - 6 p.m.) and closed on Mondays. Admission is free. The museum is located at 2010 Flora St, Dallas, TX 75201. For more information, please go to crowcollection.org or call 214-979-6430.
About the Crow Collection of Asian Art
The Crow Collection of Asian Art features a variety of spaces and galleries with changing exhibitions of the arts of China, Japan, India, Korea and Southeast Asia drawn from cultures ancient and contemporary. Seventeen years in operation, this lovingly curated free museum offers a serene setting for quiet reflection in the heart of the Dallas Arts District. Dedicated to providing art and service to the Dallas-Fort Worth community with an emphasis on shared learning and fun, the Crow Collection has recently expanded its offerings with a lushly landscaped outdoor Sculpture Garden, a pedestrian-friendly lobby and entrance, and a Samurai Gallery to showcase the museum’s spectacular acquisition of a complete set of armor, considered one of the finest of its kind in the world. The Crow Collection of Asian Art is a 501c3 non-profit organization, and is supported, in part, by the generosity of Friends of the Crow Collection members and donors. Learn more at crowcollection.org.
