Huang Yongping and Shen Yuan

AAA presents a talk at the Hong Kong Art School Learning Centre by leading artists Huang Yongping and partner Shen Yuan, two of today's most widely recognized and influential conceptual artists.

Huang Yongping's retrospective, 'House of Oracles', opens at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing on 22 March 2008. The exhibition, organised and curated by Philippe Vergne for The Walker Art Center, travelled to MASS MoCA and the Vancouver Art Gallery, and makes its debut in Asia next month.



Huang Yongping 
Born in Xiamen, China, in 1954 and based in Paris since 1989, Huang Yongping has a clear view of the rapidly changing lines that demarcate East from West, and tradition from modernity. Huang rejects fixed notions of cultural identity, political hegemony and ethnic difference. Drawing on the legacies of Joseph Beuys, Arte Povera and John Cage, as well as traditional Chinese art and philosophy, Huang Yongping creates provocative installations that challenge accepted ideas of art, national identity and historical narratives. One of the leading figures of the Xiamen Dada movement  – one of China's most radical artists' collectives – Huang continues to confront established definitions of history and aesthetics. 

Huang has shown in major exhibitions and museums around the world for the last two decades. He represented France in the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999, and his current travelling retrospective, 'House of Oracles', has been received with critical acclaim and is testament to the importance of his contribution to the art world. 

Shen Yuan 
Born in Fuzhou, China, Shen Yuan moved to Paris with her partner Huang Yongping in 1989. Shen Yuan creates installations which articulate the power of daily experiences and blur the dividing line between material reality and the intellectual realm. From her viewpoint, as a woman who has migrated from her country of birth, Shen Yuan realizes this 'transition of image' out of the everyday. Her works encourage viewers to critically re-examine life, culture and social reality in the context of global migration and today's geopolitical restructuring. Shen Yuan's expansive practice ranges from monumental site-specific interventions to intimate, visceral objects. 

Shen Yuan has held solo and group exhibitions since the early 1990s around the world. She has participated in many major international exhibitions including 'Cities on The Move' (curated by Hou Hanru and Hans Ulrich Obrist); Guangzhou Art Triennial, 2005, and the Chinese Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale, 2007. 

Special thanks to The HK Art School for the venue for the talk. 

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