Shandong University of Arts and Griffith University Art Exhibition
An artistic collaboration between Australia and China spanning 15 years will be celebrated by a joint exhibition in South Bank from 6 January.
This exhibition honours artworks created by university leaders, professional staff, senior lecturers, longstanding educators and students from both universities, with styles and media choices reflecting the diverse genres being created and taught at each, including fine art, photography and printmaking.
Despite the variance in cultures, the exhibition features surprising resonances too, according to QCA Galleries Coordinator Cassandra Lehman-Schultz.
“In subject matter that looks to the urban environment and local architecture, scenes of daily life, a respect for peoples and in respect of the natural world is clearly evident,” she says.
“This exhibition evidences the high standard of teacher and student work, revealing the wisdom and conviction of experienced artists alongside fresh artistic talents, fostered and nurtured by our universities’ commitment to scholarship and rigour.
“Evident in this exhibition is a deep understanding of how visual art practice exercises precision and intuition.
“This kind of focused philosophical thinking is capable of stretching our perceptions about the world as translations can only add to the wordless power of an image.
“We all bring something different to interpreting images, symbols and styles, and we can also find ourselves empathising with contexts that might previously be unknown and unfamiliar.
“This is the special responsibility of art education — growing artists that, in return, teach us and challenge us to new ways of thinking,” she says.
The exhibition also celebrates how students and staff continue to collaboratively engage to explore artistic horizons and build an enduring cultural interaction, understanding and a people-to-people bridge linking both countries through common interests in art and culture.
Mr LI Zongwei, Chairman of Administration Committee at SUA, agrees – speaking of the great honour seen and felt in such a cultural and artistic exchange.
“Both universities have seen tremendous achievements from this partnership and we have forged deep friendships and complementary advantage,” he said.
“It demonstrates our cooperative accomplishments in bridging the teacher / student experience to advocate more than just art and education but peaceful ideologies for greater contribution to our societies.”
The exhibition is also open in time for the launch of the 2015 BrisAsia Festival, to celebrate Brisbane’s connectionswith Asia.
Open from 10 am — 4 pm, Tuesday to Saturday 6 January through to 28 February 2015.
WEBB and PROJECT Galleries, Queensland College of Art, 226 Grey Street, South Bank.