Liu Jianhua presents two full-gallery installations at The Dowse: one of the artist’s signature works of hundreds of everyday objects cast in white porcelain including teddy bears, hammers and stilettos, Regular Fragile and a new work Square (never before shown outside of China) of glistening pools of gold-coated porcelain on sheets of steel. This is the first time the work of Liu Jianhua, one of China’s best known contemporary artists, is being shown in New Zealand and the exhibition will remain on view till July 10, 2016.
Radio New Zealand's Lynda Chanwai-Earle visited The Dowse at the beginning of the show and recorded 'Incredible alchemy: renowned ceramicist Liu Jianhua' for the Voices programme.
About the artist
Born in 1962 in Ji’an, Jiangxi Province, Liu Jianhua began working in a porcelain sculpture studio in Jingdezhen in 1977. In 1985, he was admitted to the Fine Arts Department of the Jingdezhen Pottery & Porcelain College, majoring in Sculpture. Liu graduated from the Jingdezhen Pottery & Porcelain College in 1989 and went on to teach at the College of Fine Arts at the Yunnan Institute of the Arts. He is currently an associate professor at the Yunnan Institute of Arts.
Liu Jianhua has participated in many international and domestic group and solo exhibitions. Organized solo exhibitions include Dream in Conflict at Galleria Continua, Italy (2008) and Liu Jianhua: Horizon at Beijing Commune (2009). Solo exhibitions include What Do You Really Know About Yourself? at ShangArt, Shanghai (2003) and Export: Cargo Transit at the Shanghai Gallery of Art, Three on the Bund (2007).
About the exhibition
Date: 20 Feb – 10 Jul 2016
Venue: The Dowse Art Museum
Courtesy of the artist and the Dowse Art Museum, for further information please visit http://dowse.org.nz.
