“Plumtree Scent: Contemporary Jewelry by Teng Fei” is going to open at Ginkgo Art Center on April 2, which is a periodical presentation of the artist’s thoughts over the last 5 years, following the solo exhibition “Ctrl+S” in 2011. The exhibition is named after the work “Plumtree Scent”, symbolizing rebirth after tempering. The process of the artists’ thinking and solving the dilemma of life is a metaphor for a bud of hope, and holds an optimistic dedication to contemporary people as a release from the dilemma of self in this troubled and disturbing season. Teng Fei has never regarded “people” as abstract symbols or concepts, but allows the value of the individual life to gain respect and be cherished, under the influence by the emotion, the artist uses their own creative branches to favorably touch the memories and emotions hidden in each mind.
Teng Fei’s jewelry is a true record of the individual life and thinking trajectory, as an advocate and propeller of Chinese “contemporary jewelry” she also built a creative field in jewelry compositions where the artist is able to move about freely and quickly. Teng graduated from the Department of Printmaking, the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1987, and went to the Berlin University of the Arts to study. Five years of experience in Germany gave the art of Teng Fei an open, free external form and inherent rigorousness, which is full of speculative philosophical meaning. It is in Germany where Teng Fei found that the art of jewelry was rarely known by people in China at that time, but it was also full of a variety of possibilities. In 1995, Teng returned to China from Berlin and taught in the Central Academy of Fine Arts, where she first set up the course centered on “material experiment”, after 7 years of accumulation, “contemporary jewelry” really came to China in 2002, thus this seed finally laid the roots in the Jewelry Design Specialty at the Central Academy of Fine Arts directed by Teng Fei.
Taking “material experiment” as the creative entrance to jewelry art, Teng Fei consciously chose it twenty years ago, which inadvertently placed “contemporary jewelry” and what subsequently occurred in China, in the “synchronic” structure of contemporary art”. It can be said that Chinese “contemporary jewelry” has never been in a self-talk vacuum since it was voiced, while she and the history of contemporary art were in parallel and mutually observed. Now, how to define jewelry, how to define the relationship between jewelry and people, in addition, as it is the personal adornment that is the most closely related with people, how to find more possibilities for creation, wearing and watching, as an inquisitor who directs a variety of fields and dimensions, including history, contemporary issues, culture, society, humanity, philosophy, etc., Teng Fei proposed problems, and we can see how things will develop from the first minor beginning.
In China at the moment, contemporary art starts to be weak, when people look back at the lonely creative path chosen by Teng Fei many years ago, they find that because of the choice of loneliness and perseverance, the growth track of “contemporary jewelry” is set clearer and firmer now. Teng Fei and her practice of jewelry art is a solo case within the traditional meaning. Perhaps one day in the future, Teng Fei and her “contemporary jewelry” will become the storehouse that is the most worthy of study in Chinese contemporary art.
As an artist, Teng Fei is lonely, but she is a teacher of jewelry art, which makes her fertile, in nearly two decades of sowing and watering, a large number of young people with the creative gene of jewelry art, they are blooming and maturing and then laying the roots in their own land. They determine the future for the Chinese face and pattern of “contemporary jewelry”. “Plumtree Scent: Contemporary Jewelry by Teng Fei” also invites twenty young people to participate in the exhibition. As the artist Teng Fei said, the exhibition only presents a small part of their creations, but one should ultimately issue a “true and accurate voice …”, “to present a different kind of possibility for the audience to watch the art of jewelry”.
Text and photo by the organizer, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO
About the Exhibition
Opening Time: 16:30 April 2, 2017 (Sunday)
Duration: April 2, 2017 – May 2, 2017, 10:00 - 18:00 from Monday to Saturday
Venue: Gingko Art Center
Address: No. 40, Xinzhong Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing (west gate of the Workers Gymnasium, east of Asia Hotel)
For further information please contact the center via +86 (10) 65533531 www.ginkgoart.cn
About the Artist
Teng Fei, artist, designer, Professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and founder of the Jewellery Specialty. She won the Gold Prize at the 10th National Art Exhibition, the new century excellent talent award from the Chinese Ministry of Education, one of 10 Chinese jewelry design masters. Deputy Director of the Arts and Crafts of the China Artists Association, Deputy Director of the Jewelry Designers Association of the Gems & Jewelry Trade Association of China. She graduated from the High School Affiliated to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1983, and graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, received a bachelor’s degree in 1987, she studied overseas in Germany in 1990, graduated from the Berlin University of the Arts, received a master’s degree in 1995, and since then has been teaching at the School of Design at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The works are collected by the National Art Museum of China, Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts in Germany, the Centre for Culture and Arts, France, Upper Austria Art Centre in Austria, Danish museum and collected by the domestic and foreign collectors. The work “Plumtree” series is a national ceremony given to the presidents and ladies from Brazil, the United States, France, Portugal, Russia and so on.
Exhibition Space Design
The exhibition space is supported by Liu Haowei’s CAA Architects. Liu said that, “A new ‘context’, from the entrance to the deepest place of the exhibition hall, one can see the gap opening in the wall, as the layers of doors penetrate another time and space, guiding people to explore the spiritual world of the essence of life.”
Special Support for the Exhibition
The show specially invites Lens as the only cooperative communication organization with special thanks to Hiersun Diamond Company, Shanghai Yinghe Jade offering substantial support to the exhibited works.
About Ginkgo Art Center
Founded in 2014, Ginkgo Art Center seeks to explore the unique value of aesthetics and the cultural identity of Chinese contemporary art, deeply examining the diverse creations of Chinese artists, actively participating in the development of Asian contemporary art, sharing with the collectors the collection experience of contemporary art based on cultural traditions. It is dedicated to recommending the artists of academic rigor, exploratory skills and growth to the institutions and treasured collectors through the exhibition, publishing, residency, non-profit project, etc., to practice the participation and promotion of the development goal of Chinese contemporary art, and through the establishment of the three-dimensional model of “art space, art finance, collectors club” to attempt to promote the development and innovation of the contemporary art market.
