On March 14th (Thursday, 19:00-21:00), the eleventh UNTITLEDdialogue will feature American art critic and artist Robert C. Morgan (羅伯特 C. 摩根) and three Chinese contemporary artists - Lin Yan (林延), Shen Chen (沈忱), Wei Dong (魏東). The event will happen during the Asia Week New York, on the occasion of the publication of Morgan's newest book, Reflections on the Condition of Recent Chinese Art. The author will initiate a talk about the book and his perspectives on Chinese contemporary art, accompanied by his dialogues with three artists mentioned in the book.

Published by Hebei Education Press and translated by Zhu Chunhang, Reflections on the Condition of Recent Chinese Art is the first collection of essays on Chinese contemporary art to be published in Chinese by an American critic. The book includes twenty essays that Morgan has written and published on contemporary Chinese artists and art market. Divided into three parts, the book includes an opening chapter on aspects of Chinese, reviews on 12 Chinese artists and a closing chapter about connoisseurship and market of Chinese contemporary art. These writings exceed a mere critical analysis of Chinese contemporary art and subsume another larger theme - when market value overshadows aesthetic value in 21st century, how can we understand the value of art other than a cynical investment strategy. As Morgan argues in the end of the introduction:" What I would like to advocate in these essays is another way of thinking about art through feeling and through a sense of community that takes an interest in why art is necessary to sustain a living culture. In this sense, China would appear to be close to the top in opening a threshold of aesthetic experience that globalization couldn’t afford to ignore." The English version will be released in 2014.

Time: March 14th (Thursday), 19:00 - 21:00

Location: Einstein Auditorium, Barney Building, New York University, 34 Stuyvesant Street, New York, NY10003

The event is has a free public reception, with suggested donation of $5.

About the Speakers:

Robert C. Morgan (羅伯特 C. 摩根): Lives and works in New York city as an international critic, curator, art historian, artist, and poet. He holds an M.F.A. in Sculpture and a Ph.D. in art history from New York University. He is Professor Emeritus in Art History at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In addition, he teaches at in the Graduate Fine Department at Pratt Institute and in the Departments of Photography and Art History at the School of Visual Arts. As an international critic, he has authored and edited numerous essays and books, translated into 18 languages. He is Consulting Editor to The Brooklyn Rail, Contributing Editor to Sculpture, and New York Editor for Asian Art News. As a painter, he has shown in several exhibitions in the United States, Europe, and Asia. In addition, he has both curated and juried over 70 exhibitions in various institutions worldwide. In 1999, he received the first Arcala award in Salamanca for international criticism. In 2011, he was elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in Salzburg.

Lin Yan (林延): Born in Beijing, Lin now lives and works in New York. Lin Yan seeks the simplest possible use of elements in her work. Taoist thought remains in her life and art. The foundation of Lin Yan's large sculptural paper collage is a variety of hand-made paper for Chinese traditional painting. Her images investigate the interrelation of Chinese traditional painting and modernist abstraction, and postmodern appropriation and ancient technical rigor. Lin’s works have been widely shown in the galleries and museums, included in recent exhibitions at Museum of Chinese American in America in New York, the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, Dresden State Art Collections in Germany, Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum in China. Currently, Lin Yan's site-specific installation is on show at Prow Art Space, Flatiron Building, 175 Fifth Avenue.

Shen Chen (沈忱): Born in China in 1955, Shen Chen is based in New York and Shanghai. He began his art education in high school and continued his training at Shanghai Art College. In the 1980s, Shen Chen was one of China’s pioneers of Chinese abstract painting and experimental ink painting. After thirty years of practicing and creating art, Shen has become an artist with a profound influence in today’s art world. His work blends multiple cultural elements as he layers concepts of time and space with Zen philosophy, meditation, and repetition. Shen has shown his works in China and abroad, including the Shanghai Art Museum and Ningbo Museum of Art, the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Roma Academy of Fine Arts, Queens Museum of Art, Zhendai Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Chinese in America and Kunsthalle Recklinghausen.

Wei Dong (魏東): Born in Inner Mongolia, China in 1968, Wei Dong now works and lives in New York and Beijing. By juxtaposing classical figures of the West with traditional landscapes and tossing in seemingly arbitrary objects into his compositions, Wei Dong brings together conflicting images, traditions, and values into a single pictorial space. Wei Dong has shown his works internationally, including National Academy Museum (New York), Kunstmuseum Bern, National Museum of Contemporary Art (Seoul) and Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco de Young. His latest group exhibition is Hot Pot: A Taste of Contemporary Chinese Art, taking place from March 16 to June 23, 2013 at Brattleboro Museum & Art Center.

About UNTITLEDdialogue:

UNTITLEDdialogue project is a series of cultural events with Asian related artists, curators, writers, dancers, muscians and independent film makers in New York. Every month, we present an event that favors social and cultural dialogue and acts as a catalyst for further collaboration.

Courtesy of UNTITLEDdialogue, for further information please visit www.untitleddialogue.com or write to untitleddialogue@gmail.com to join our mailing list.