Blind Portraits, an exhibition presenting four monumental sculptures by Beijing-based artist Sui Jianguo, will be on view New York’s Doris C. Freedman Plaza from October 28, 2014 through February 20, 2015. Organized by Public Art Fund, the exhibition will feature his bronze works that “may first look like giant, tactile lumps,” as Carol Vogel of The New York Times writes, “but on closer inspection each has a form reminiscent of human features.” Initially modeled in miniature while the artist was blindfolded, then scaled up to seventeen feet tall and cast in bronze, the works play with notions of chance, intuition, and subjective expression—important themes in both traditional Chinese and modern Western art.

“Informed by a deep fascination with both Eastern and Western cultural and artistic themes, Sui Jianguo’s Blind Portraitsare the result of a creative process that is at once playful yet rigorous, open-ended yet highly controlled” said Public Art Fund Director & Chief Curator, Nicholas Baume.

Named for the founder of Public Art Fund and New York City’s first Director of Cultural Affairs, Doris C. Freedman Plazahas been the site of more than 60 installations since Public Art Fund’s founding in 1977.

The four large-scale, cast bronze sculptures that make up Blind Portraits are part of a series of works that the artist first began work on in 2008. He begins by working blindfolded with mounds of clay, creating 10-15 small abstracted portraits each day. Selected small-scale forms are then chosen for digital enlargement and eventually cast in bronze. The resulting monolithic forms take on subtle characteristics of human faces and expressions depending on one’s perspective, while the enlarged marks of the artist’s fingers are visible on the original clay surface. This is the first time these works have been shown in the United States.

To date, Sui is perhaps best known for his Mao Jacket and Dinosaur series, which reflect both his personal history and the sensitivities of a generation that was born under the Mao regime and came of age during the Cultural Revolution, experiencing the subsequent whirlwind of political shifts and reforms leading to present day China. A departure from the charged iconography of these past works, his Blind Portraits series continues to utilize scale and material to impact viewers, but it also raises questions about artistic practice in modern China. His nod to the presence of the artist’s hand in the production of contemporary art—particularly large-scale, outdoor sculptures—further reinforces this connection to his irreverent and sometimes critical past works.

Sui Jianguo (b. 1956, Qingdao, China) lives and works in Beijing. He received a BA in the Fine Arts Department from the Shandong University of Arts in 1984 and an MA in the Sculpture Department from the prestigious China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1989, where he is currently the Head of the Sculpture Department. He has participated in numerous international group and solo exhibitions at institutions including The British Museum, London (2012); Museum Beeldenaan Zee, The Hague, The Netherlands (2011); Today Art Museum, Beijing, China (2009); Asia Society, New York (2008); Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan (2007); Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Manila, The Philippines (2006); Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (2005); as well as at the Expo 2010 Shanghai Chinaand the Jardin Des Tuileries, Paris, France (2004). He is represented by Pace Gallery.

SUPPORT

This exhibition is generously supported by Mickey Cartin and an anonymous donor. Public Art Fund is a non-profit organization supported by contributions from individuals, foundations, corporations and, in part, with funds from government agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Special thanks to the Office of the Mayor, Office of the Manhattan Borough President, Department of Cultural Affairs, Department of Parks & Recreation, and Central Park Conservancy.

ABOUT PUBLIC ART FUND

Public Art Fund brings dynamic contemporary art to a broad audience in New York City by mounting ambitious free exhibitions of international scope and impact that offer the public powerful experiences with art and the urban environment.

Courtesy of the artist and Public Art Fund, for further information please visit publicartfund.org or contact

Kellie Honeycutt | 212.223.7810 | khoneycutt@publicartfund.org| PublicArtFund.org

Andy Cushman | 212.223.7815 | acushman@publicartfund.org| PublicArtFund.org