China Institute Gallery Open House!

I will forever be grateful for the two trips I was able to take to New York City (2005, 2009) with Mr. Don, Georgia and Michelle Albert. During the 2009 stay in NYC, one of the places we visited was the China Institute:

Mr. Don and I were in the lobby of the Institute, photographed by Georgia (Isis).  This exhibit we saw, the Tombs of Mawangdui, including some artifacts from the tomb of the Countess Dai and a replica of the silk banner that had been, somehow, preserved in her tomb, AWESOME!

It may be relatively small in space, but when it comes to putting on blockbuster exhibits, the China Institute ranks with the best!  The 2009 Noble Tombs of Mawangdui was just one of many incredible exhibits, bringing to the United States things we would otherwise only see online (maybe).  So I'm very happy to publish this announcement:

Asia Week New York 2014 Gallery Open House Tuesday, March 18, 2014 ~ 6:00-8:00pm China Institute, 125 East 65th Street, New York, NY 10065 In conjunction with Asia Week New York 2014, join us for an intimate evening of dialogue with curators and artists, exploring our current exhibition, Inspired by Dunhuang: Re-creation in Contemporary Chinese Art. Light refreshments will be served. This event is free of charge and open to the public. To register for this event, please contact Jennifer Lima at jlima@chinainstitute.org or 212-744-8181, ext. 146. Like the old masters before them, modern and contemporary luminaries, such as Zhang Daqian, Zhang Hongtu, Liu Jude, Liu Dan, and Yu Hong, have sought inspiration from Dunhuang's ancient sculptures and murals. Inspired by Dunhuang presents the breathtaking results of their painstaking and creative efforts, which capture the experience of Dunhuang in ways that are powerfully transformative. With its carefully curated group of paintings, calligraphy, sculptures, photographs, and mixed media installations that encompass a variety of themes and forms, this exhibition is a pioneering exploration of the historical, literary, artistic, and conceptual nature of the inspiration and influence exerted by Dunhuang's thousand-year-old tradition on contemporary artistic creation. Organized by China Institute Gallery, this exhibition is curated by Willow Weilan Hai, Director of China Institute Gallery, and Jerome Silbergeld, the P.Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Professor of Chinese Art History, the Chair of the Department of Art & Archaeology at Princeton University, and the Director of Princeton's Tang Center for East Asian Art. For more information, please visit www.chinainstitute.org/gallery/exhibitions/current-exhibition/ This exhibition is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by the generous support of the W.L.S. Spencer Foundation and China Institute Friends of the Gallery.

Sounds sooo fricking cool -- right there, being able to talk face to face with the curators and the artists!  If you are in the New York city area, or are planning on being in NYC on March 18th, please check into it further.  By the way, the area surrounding the China Institute is built for walkers, loaded with shops, delis, sidewalk cafes, restaurants, and bars (taverns? -- not sure what they call them in NYC, here in Milwaukee we just call 'em bars), not to mention wonderful architecture and you know those beautiful well-dressed women you see at Advanced Style - well, I'm just saying you see them all over the place in this neighborhood!  Even better than walking up Fifth Avenue toward the Met.