Newman Huo

    BRITISH artist, Adam Bailey, was quite excited to see his 2’34” animation, “Cheese,” exhibited at the OCT Art Gallery at the opening of the Seventh International Ink Painting Biennial of Shenzhen on Tuesday.

    “My work is about dreams and it was inspired by my experience of drawing with ink when I was young,” said Bailey, 26.

    From Wales, Bailey graduated with a bachelor’s degree in animation from the University for Creative Arts at Fernham in 2007. He spent two years in Sofia, Bulgaria, before setting up his own studio in London last year. His work has been shown at more than 50 events around the world including screenings, exhibitions and installations.

    “I’m quite excited to see so many different styles of ink paintings at this year’s biennial. This has given me a lot of inspiration for my future work,” he said.

    Bailey is one of more than 140 artists from over 20 countries and regions exhibiting at this year’s biennial, which runs through Jan. 14 next year. There are five exhibitions titled A New World of Brushwork, New Media With Traditional Thought, New Faces of Ink Painting, Com(ic)media on Line, and Legacy and Creations — Ink Art vs. Ink Art.”

    Featuring more than 300 works, the five exhibitions are being held in the Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen Fine Art Institute, and OCT Art and Design Gallery.

    A New World of Brushwork; and New Media with Traditional Thought

    Two exhibitions at the Guan Shanyue Art Museum feature experimental works of more than 40 artists with opposite approaches.

    In A New World of Brushwork exhibition, artists focus on using traditional materials and techniques to depict today’s urban landscapes and social life.

    In the New Media With Traditional Thought exhibition, artists have employed non-traditional media, such as oils, prints, sculptures, installations, photography, and digital art, to reveal how the elements of traditional ink art can merge with today’s new media art.

    New Faces of Ink Painting

    The exhibition at the Shenzhen Fine Art Institute features works from more than 20 young students from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, the China Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, the Nanjing Institute of the Arts in Jiangsu Province, and other art institutions in China.

    Legacy and Creations —

    Ink Art vs. Ink Art

    Organized by the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the exhibition at the Guan Shanyue Art Museum includes works by more than 30 artists from Hong Kong.

    The exhibition includes masters of the 1960s and ’70s, such as Lu Shoukun who initiated the New Ink Painting movement and Liu Guosong who pioneered modern Chinese ink painting.

    In the 1980s and ’90s, Hong Kong artists started exploring diversified artistic methods in the realm of ink art, which was characterized by the assimilation of Chinese and Western aesthetics and local characteristics.

    In the past decade, young artists have explored concepts and techniques, marking new breakthroughs pursuing a cross-media, cross-cultural path of development.

    Com(ic)media on Line

    The special subject exhibition at the OCT Art & Design Gallery re-interprets the lines of comics and Chinese painting to form a broader aesthetic of lines across art media.

    Com(ic)media on Line takes its name from the concept of the line, the expression of lines, the interest in lines, and the representation of a world enclosed by lines or the différance in the linear zone.

    This exhibition brings together Eastern and Western techniques to investigate the similarities of this mass-oriented art form, examining the communication and transmission of simple brush and line drawings, while demonstrating the humor of these fascinating visualizations which metaphorically re-create the real world and the various vicissitudes of human life.

    The exhibition includes works in ink on paper and silk, woodblock prints, illustrations, cartoons, animation, video, sculpture and graffiti.

    Visitors will have a chance to see drawings by late Chinese master painters such as Feng Zikai, Guan Liang, Zhang Daqian, Hua Junwu, and He Youzhi.

    Two British artists, Bailey and Peter Maclean, have enriched the exhibition’s theme of lines through their animation works that, together with the other artworks, form an interesting dialogue of reality and the comic world.

    Featuring the two artists as special speakers, the Com(ic)media on Line: British Contemporary Animation Talk Series will be held at Shenzhen University on Dec. 16 and 17.

    They will address local contemporary animation enthusiasts and professionals from the animation industry concerning the development of animation in Britain, and introduce the Best of British Animation Awards Vol.8 to public audiences.

    Dates: Through Jan. 14

    Venue: Guan Shanyue Art Museum, 6026 Hongli Road, Futian District (福田区红荔路6026号关山月美术馆)

    Buses: 10, 14, 25, 34, 105, 111, 215, 228, 238, 322, 350, 371

    Metro: Shao Nina Gong Station (Children’s Palace Station, 少年宫站), Exit B

    Venue: OCT Art & Design Gallery, Overseas Chinese Town (深圳华侨城华·美术馆)

    Buses: 21, 26, 32, 54, 59, 101, 105, 109, 121, 204, 209, 223, 234, 327, 328, 350, 370, 390

    Metro: Hua Qiao Cheng Station (Overseas Chinese Town Station 华侨城站), Exit C

    Venue: Shenzhen Fine Art Institute, Yinhu Road, Luohu District (罗湖区银湖路深圳画院)

    Buses: 4, 5, 7, 201, 218, 222, 301, 315, 360. About five minutes walk from Yinhu bus stop.