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PhillipsX and WHITE SPACE Announce AWAKENED by nature, a Selling Exhibition Dedicated to Leading Chinese Female Artists Li Shurui and Shi Zhiying
On View at Phillips Asia Headquarters in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District from 11 July to 16 August
HONG KONG – 24 June 2024 – PhillipsX, a selling exhibition platform operated by the global Private Sales team at Phillips, and WHITE SPACE, one of the foremost pioneering spaces for art in China, are pleased to announce AWAKENED by nature, a selling exhibition opens to the public from 11 July to 16 August at Phillips’ galleries in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District. The exhibition will feature two leading Chinese female artists, Li Shurui and Shi Zhiying, who are invited to create works in which they are taking their inspirations from nature, light, and colour. Founded in 2004 in Beijing, WHITE SPACE has successfully launched the careers of numerous emerging artists over the past two decades, bringing their work to leading art fairs and institutions internationally. Curated by WHITE SPACE, this exhibition also marks Phillips’ first selling exhibition in partnership with a major gallery at its spectacular West Kowloon headquarters.
Wenjia Zhang, Private Sales Director, Asian Clients, Phillips said, “Phillips has been presenting a rich diversity of female artists from the global contemporary art scene in our auctions and exhibitions. To further our legacy as a bellwether of young female talent, we are honoured to work with WHITE SPACE to bring incredible artworks by two leading young female artists on the contemporary art scene in mainland China to our community in Hong Kong and internationally. Work by Li Shurui and Shi Zhiying have been exhibited at multiple solo shows and group exhibitions in distinguished international galleries and museums, AWAKENED by nature represents a unique opportunity for our community of collectors and art lovers to join the dialogue between their imagination of nature, humanity and the environment.”
Di Zhang, Gallery Director, WHITE SPACE, said, “We are very pleased to partner with Phillips to present AWAKENED by nature. We look forward to this partnership, which is a great opportunity to further engage with the art community in Mainland China, Hong Kong and beyond.”
Drawing inspiration from both Eastern and Western art history, Shi Zhiying captures the life-movement, materiality, and ephemerality of oriental spirits through the language of Western oil painting, utilising colour, texture, and brushstrokes. Religious figures and animals with deep spiritual/cultural connotations are Shi’s most recent creations, such as Auspicious Animal No. 5, Goddess of Music No. 4, and Little Elephant presented in the exhibition that were created over the last year. Auspicious Animal No. 5 (illustrated page 1) highlighted here features a precious blue gem, which was a central subject matter of the artist’s solo show at WHITE SPACE in 2022. Set besides the smooth yet textural auspicious animal, the temporal nature of both creations are reflected as they dissolve into each other, capturing the continuous transformations that occur between matter, the picture plane and the state of perception.
Currently lives and works in Beijing and Dali, China, Li Shurui (b. 1981, Chongqing) received her BFA at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2004. She was granted 2016 New York Fellowship Program of Asian Cultural Council. The study of “light” and “colour” and their cultural connotations constitute the core of Li’s artistic practice. The artist is convinced that the use of “light” and “colour” can embody, record, and shape individuals’ needs and spirituality in different cultures and times, which is also related to their collective ideology in a broader sense. In recent years, Li has developed a more comprehensive system of work methods. Drawing from her life experiences, Li explores the boundaries of the painted medium, as well as the functional, social and political nature of light and color through a highly personal approach and its extended practice. Her recent solo exhibitions include Artificial Emotions at Carl Kostyál gallery in London and High Light: Splendor Worn Thin in the Recesses of Time at the Long Museum in Shanghai.
About Shi Zhiying Currently lives and works in Shanghai, China, Shi Zhiying (b. 1979, Shanghai, China) received her MFA from the Department of Oil Painting at the Fine Arts College of Shanghai University. The artist has become well known in her native China for stark monochromatic paintings of uniform vistas in open ocean water, sand, grass…she deals with objects’ state of existence in her painting practice. Emphasized in her practice is the interchange of appearance with disappearance: the quality and scale of water, rock, containers, the figure of buddhas, beads are described in painterly strokes. However, the shapes are not definite, but formed by independent lines, brushstrokes, and the paints, conveying an immanent rhythmic logic, establishing a stable and sensational structure in the process of interacting with the visual experience. Her recent solo exhibitions include Shi Zhiying: Stones and Stories at Yuz Museum in Shanghai, and Bliss at Shanghai Oil-painting and Sculpture Institute.
Viewing Schedule 11 July - 16 August 2024, Monday – Friday: 10:00am – 6:00pm 13 - 14 July, 10:00am – 6:00pm Location: G/F, WKCDA Tower, West Kowloon Cultural District, No. 8 Austin Road West, Kowloon, Hong Kong
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ABOUT PHILLIPSX PhillipsX is a dynamic selling exhibition platform operated by the global Private Sales team at Phillips, the destination for international collectors to buy and sell the world’s most important Modern and Contemporary art, design and luxury items. Through PhillipsX, our influence extends beyond the realm of auction and into the broader global cultural landscape by offering a boundary-less buying, selling and discovery experience with the immediacy of retail. PhillipsX highlights notable artists and creators of the 20th and 21st centuries by presenting highly curated exhibitions of coveted works that are available in real time. Through PhillipsX, our team continues to modernize collecting experiences with imagination, expertise, and relevancy.
ABOUT WHITE SPACE WHITE SPACE was founded in 2004 in Beijing and relocated to the 1,500-square-meter space in Caochangdi in 2009 to embark on a new series of art programs, becoming the first contemporary art gallery in China to focus on working with young artists. In 2021, WHITE SPACE opened its brand new 700-square-meter space in Shunyi district of Beijing. As a professional gallery that promotes the dissemination and exchange of contemporary art worldwide, the gallery has worked alongside each artist to deepen individual artistic practices, and becoming one of the foremost pioneering spaces for art in China and Asia.
PRESS CONTACTS: PHILLIPS – Ingrid Hsu, Head of PR and Corporate Communications, Asia Ingridhsu@phillips.com +852 2318 2043 PHILLIPS – Jiayi Zhang, Public Relations Coordinator Jiayizhang@phillips.com +852 2318 2080 WHITE SPACE – Yang Shuqing, Media Specialist shuqing@whitespace-beijing.com
PHILLIPS NEW YORK – 432 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022 PHILLIPS LONDON – 30 Berkeley Square, London, W1J 6EX PHILLIPS HONG KONG – G/F, WKCDA Tower, West Kowloon Cultural District, No. 8 Austin Road West, Kowloon, Hong Kong PHILLIPS GENEVA - Rue de la Confédération, 7 Geneva 1204
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