MATERIAL GIRL, A Dialogue Between Chinese and Australian Women Artists

Message from the Director

Following the success of ‘WHOSE STORY IS THIS? … anyway!’ and ‘AIR WATER LOVE’, this exhibition marks our third time creating a dialogue between Chinese and Australia women artists. This year, we are proud to have eleven Chinese and Australian women artists from different cultural backgrounds, to have a dialogue under the same theme – all things shine. By exhibiting these fascinating artworks and promoting artistic exchange, this exhibition explores the attitude and understanding of social life from female perspective, celebrates the value and the values of women today, and highlights feminine power and feminine wisdom.

For those Chinese and Australia women artists, looking at and making art has become an exciting exploration of new media and new ways of creating & presenting art. They are no longer limited to making just paintings, collages & sculptures with traditional materials, for art can be made from anything as well as be about anything. They give the material life and soul, which makes the artworks more powerful and creative.

A special mention goes to Art Nova100, which introduced the participating Chinese emerging artists, who expressing their thinking of changing times, humanistic and self-development from a unique perspective. We hope this exhibition would be a great platform for Chinese and Australia women artists to have a creative dialogue, while promoting art exchanges and mutual learning between the two civilizations.

I take this opportunity to extend my gratitude to Nicholas Tsoutas, the curator of this exhibition for his unique vision and professionalism, making this challenging exhibition possible.

I wish the exhibition a complete success.

Xiao Xiayong

Director

China Cultural Centre in Sydney

Introduction

As the 3rd women contemporary art exhibition of China Cultural Centre in Sydney, this exhibition brings together 11 Chinese and Australian women artists from different cultural backgrounds to have a dialogue theme on “All Things Shine”. We will shine a bright light on the complexity of materials that artists use in the production of their work, and the materiality of the artwork by women artists.

Come along to explore the passion that the artists blend their artistic concepts into various materials through cutting-edge techniques, bringing new life and soul into the contemporary artworks in the form of ceramics, wooden sculptural drawings, fabric drawing, installations, performance videos, animation and more.

The dialogue is not only a platform for celebrating women artists, but also promoting mutual understandings that allow our communities to engage with respect for the intersections, similarities and differences within our contemporary art practices and cultural desires.