Nan Qi
Contents
Foreword Introduction
4-7 8-15
Recent works
16-55
Curriculum Vitae
56-61
Acknowledgements
62-63
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Foreword
Shui mo or ink wash painting has a long rich tradition in the annals of Chinese culture and heritage. For over two centuries, Chinese artists have used ink on rice paper to showcase not just their drawing skills but also their intellect and nobility. Past masters of the medium composed poems or wrote verses on their paintings, thus creating a unique Chinese art form which may not be fully understood by the uninitiated. Today, traditional shui mo painting is still widely practised; however the rapid modernisation of China has provided unprecedented stimuli to a younger generation of ink artists to reassess their art form. Taking a leaf from the Impressionist art movement and its influence on Western art in the 19th century, this new group of contemporary ink artists are breaking ground to create an innovative dimension and perspective for shui mo. Against such a backdrop, I set up China Art Foundation (CAF) in 2004 as a non-profit organisation dedicated to the development and promotion of contemporary Chinese ink painting through exhibitions, publications and public forums. In October 2004, CAF organised an exhibition entitled ‘XinXieYi’ or ‘New Freehand Chinese Ink Painting’ at the National Art Museum in Beijing. It was curated by a team of distinguished art critics led by Professor Liu Xiaochun, Researcher at the Chinese Art Research Institute. The curatorial team selected a group of 30 mostly Chinese ink artists, with the inclusion of Hong Kong’s Wucius Wong and Singapore’s Tan Swie Hian. The exhibition explored the various aspects of freehand brushwork, especially the concept of ‘original simplicity’. Coincidentally, there was a high profile international exhibition held at the same time in the National Museum. It was the first Impressionist Art Exhibition held in Beijing, a cultural programme initiated and organised by the Chinese and French governments to commemorate forty years of Franco-Sino ties. The differences and relationships between the two art movements could not be better served and it left a strong indelible impression on most audience members.
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
Nan Qi participated in ‘XinXieYi’ as both my exhibition director and artist. He was then already a well-known artist at home, both as an oil and ink painter. His subject matters range widely, but he was particularly interested in exploring themes which relate to authority, money and sex. Over the years, I witnessed Nan Qi’s journey as an artist who dared to break new ground, experimenting early with the painting of ink dots on rice paper. He harnessed digital technology and combined it with traditional ink techniques to create a whole new body of work, many of which produced a three-dimensional effect, even to the naked eye. Georges Seurat, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol were all well known for their signature work, employing the dot effect on canvas, in a pointillist manner and with screen-printing techniques. With Chinese ink, Nan Qi created a new oeuvre of dot-inspired paintings, imbued with strong Chinese symbolic characteristics. I hope you will all enjoy his works as much as I have. I would like to thank Kwok Kian Chow for writing the introduction essay for the catalogue. Kian Chow is a well known writer, curator and consultant to museums, with an erudite understanding of Asian art. His particular insights into Chinese art and culture are especially invaluable. I would also like to thank Frédéric and Carole de Senarclens for their enthusiasm and support for this exhibition. They have a strong international exhibitions programme with a wonderful space to match. Finally, my deep appreciation goes to the team at Art Plural Gallery who has put in a great effort to make the show a success.
Chong Huai Seng Chairman China Art Foundation
Portrait of Nan Qi 6
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Introduction
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Southern Streams: Launch of a New Ink Painting Exhibition Series Chinese ink painting is translated into English variedly as “ink painting” or “ink and brush painting”, if not a closely related (and at times completely interchangeable) set of terms: Chinese landscape painting, rice paper painting, literati painting, Chinese monochrome painting or Chinese scroll painting. Setting aside their detailed etymologies, it is important to note that they each emphasise a different element or characteristic of ink painting – the ink, brush, paper, aesthetics and so on. I wish to highlight two important dimensions which appear to be missing in these terms – colour and water. Ink encompasses se 色 “colour”, according to classical Chinese text on painting. Ink was commonly regarded to possess five colours, although this functioned as a figurative description of its endless possibilities, just as there were various explanations as to what the colours were. Some of the “colours” included: burnt, dry, wet, thick, heavy, light, black and so on. The idea that these “colours” existed in the monochrome may sound contradictory but it accentuates the very spirit of monochrome ink painting. Since colour is but a description or expression, the aesthetics of ink is really about working within its possibilities to capture various “colours”. In this sense, black ink may be said to possess colour. Of course, one can argue that these should be more accurately referred to as tonalities, hues or opacity, rather than colours. However, the classical discourse did have parallel mentions of polychromatic colours – red, yellow, green, etc. In relation to these traditional colours, the monochrome was equally capable, if not more nuanced for the greater artistic challenges it presented, in expressing the richness of colour. This spirit of monochrome ink painting makes it unique among painting traditions in the world. Historically, Chinese ink painting has resisted the use of polychromatic colours, despite the availability of colour pigments from minerals and a rich array of pictorial techniques for their application. This understanding of colour in ink painting is further explored in contemporary ink painting. A contemporary Chinese ink work need not be a painting, by strict definition, as the ink aesthetics may be applied to film, photography, installation or even performance art, which is known in China as xinwei yishu 行为艺术 “behavioural art”, emphasising the phenomenological aspects of the work. Just as black ink possesses colours, ink painting may be realised in multiple media.
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
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Besides colour, another lesser discussed aspect of Chinese ink painting is water. In Chinese, the term most commonly used to refer to ink painting is shuimo hua 水墨画， literally translated as “water and ink painting”. This is a relatively new term, as the ink paintings were known as “landscapes” (shanshui 山水) or “Chinese painting” (guohua 国画) during the early 20th century and before. This switch in terminology was meant to categorise a broader spectrum of ink works by the technical properties of its medium, ink and water, downplaying the importance of describing it by subject matter and cultural or national identity. This ironically reinforces the “Chineseness” of the medium, a point that I will later discuss in relation to contemporary ink discourse. When considering “colour” in terms of depth, thickness or rawness, the counterpart to ink is naturally water. In terms of its physicality, ink painting is about the interplay of the brush, rice paper, ink and water. With the advent of photography, film and mass communication in the 20th century, and afterwards the present era of global internet and social media (in China, there has been the development of a new literary genre known as “shortmessaging literature”), ink artists are therefore re-thinking the relations of each of these physical components with the media-scape at large. As such, water is no longer just seen as a companion to ink to achieve colour, but takes on a literal, metaphorical and conceptual manifestation in art. It is interesting to note that if the term “watercolour” is not only a medium but also a culturally specific link to English art history, then ink painting – most accurately described as “water-colour” in terms of its physical properties, but has these exact two terms instead omitted in its English terminology - is culturally specific to the Chinese art tradition. The reconsideration of the element of water in contemporary work rekindles classical philosophical discourse on water, such as in Laozi and the earlier pictorial representations of water in the Tang and Song paintings. Such rich historical and cross-disciplinary references from sources in the last thousands of years have become accessible to contemporary ink artists as a source of inspiration. This is a good point for us to explore the works of Nan Qi, the first of the Chinese ink painting exhibition series at Art Plural Gallery, Singapore.
Detail: Overlapping Five Stars (叠着的五个五星) 2013, Page 26 11
Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
The thinning on the edge of a concentration of ink when it is applied to the rice paper is an expressive technique in ink painting. Optically, this works in a manner similar to spherical aberration – the uniform diffusion at the circumscribing edge of a light reflection. With the painting brush and the mixing of water, the directions, speed, movements of the spread of the ink on paper can be masterly controlled, so as to form impressionistic or expressive images or pure abstract forms. The term in Chinese for such diffusion is yundian 晕点, a term found in many classical literary works to describe the misty moonlight spotted through thick clouds, indicating forthcoming rain. The same term yundian is used to describe Nan Qi’s signature dots. The artist has used the yundian dot technique to subvert the descriptive, poetic and abstract content of the classical ink. It now becomes an interplay of the historical references and the pixelation in digital media. Each pixel dot in Nan Qi’s digitisation is hand painted. There are multiple takes in the irony: a twist from the classical to the contemporary, a switch from the expressive ink to the digital pixelation but using the same ink medium, and the reformulation of the images upon viewing at a distance. As the artist puts it, “the dots in my work have many layers, including ink layers themselves and layers of colour, but all in a single dot.” Such multiple layering is extended to the various deconstructions the artist explores with traditions, media, technology and the viewer’s participation in completing the cycle of image production. Taking such layering further is Nan Qi’s 3-D series. Nan Qi invokes the stereoscopic vision of the 3-D technology half-way: that is, to produce the bi-vision 3-D images and yet denying the viewer the usual 3-D glasses to complete the illusion. The 3-D glasses here symbolise the unquestioning acceptance of political and marketing messages in the media. An audience who habitually put on the 3-D glasses have been trained to complete the intended messaging in his or her mind. The use of the ink medium then brings us back to the “Chineseness” of it all. The familiar imagery deconstructed in Nan Qi’s 3-D paintings points to the Chinese context. On another level, the contemporary ink painting is both a critique as well as a furthering of the potentials of the millennia-long aesthetic tradition.
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The reference to tradition is important. A recent exhibition at the G-Dot Art Space in Beijing featuring Nan Qi as well as Cai Guangbin and Zhang Quan, has Houyi 后移 as the exhibition title, which was translated into English as “In Retrospect”. In going through the catalogue, my preference would have been to translate the term literally as “Back Shift” to emphasise the multi-directional shifts the artists are doing – and “back” or engagements with the ink tradition being very critical – rather than a mere retrospection. The works of these artists and the discussions related to the Houyi exhibition form an example of the dynamic contemporary ink art and the related discourse. The Singapore-based China Art Foundation has helped to organise and also sponsored many of the contemporary ink conferences. Another very important series is the Shenzhen Ink Biennale and Conferences series which has seen the participation of not only Chinese but also ink art scholars from all over the world. Singapore was featured as a special section in the 2006 Shenzhen Ink Biennale. Collectively, such practices and activities, which began in the 1980s, form one of the most dynamic contemporary art trends today. A sensitive consideration of many of the artists’ work shows their dynamic negotiation between tradition and contemporary culture, self and the collective, and the exploration of the endless possibilities in the perennial ink medium. Such is the wealth of the long streams of art history, the dialogue with which is its progression as well as its deconstruction. The “Chineseness” in ink painting entails both the celebration as well as a critique of the ink painting tradition. In the contemporary Chinese ink discourse, what began as an exploration of the Chinese cultural identity, as well as the position of the Chinese art history in a world art historical context, had evolved into a dynamic pluralism acknowledging cultural complexity and the individual identity within, as Nan Qi’s art has revealed. The important new exhibition series in Singapore will help to further these directions in a transnational space. The title of this essay is the literal translation of Nan Qi’s name – the southern streams.
Kwok Kian Chow Kwok Kian Chow is a writer, curator and museum and collection development consultant. He was the founding director of the Singapore Art Museum and the National Art Gallery Singapore, where he is currently senior advisor. He has written and presented extensively on museum issues and Asian art history.
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Recent works
Black ‘Nan’ RMB Currency (墨色“南”字人民币) 2013 Ink on rice paper - 3D images in ink and wash 108 x 70 cm 16
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
Red ‘Nan’ RMB Currency (红色“南”字人民币) 2013 Colour on rice paper - 3D images in ink and wash 108 x 70 cm 18
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
Colored ‘Nan’ RMB Currency (花色“南”字人民币) 2013 Ink on rice paper - 3D images in ink and wash 108 x 70 cm
RMB Currency Symbol (人民币符号) 2012 Colour on rice paper - 3D images in ink and wash 81 x 98 cm Private Collection, Singapore Pages 22-23 20
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
3D Female Soldier (3D女兵) 2013 Colour on rice paper - 3D images in ink and wash 103 x 70 cm
Overlapping Five Stars (叠着的五个五星) 2013 Colour on rice paper - 3D images in ink and wash 103 x 70 cm Page 26
Pentagram in Ink and Wash (水墨红五星) 2013 Colour on rice paper - 3D images in ink and wash 103 x 70 cm Page 27 24
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
New Chinese Landscape Series No. 1 (新中国山水系列之一) 2012 Ink on rice paper - 3D images in ink and wash 70 x 108 cm Private Collection, Singapore 28
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
Red Credit Card (红色信用卡) 2011 Colour on rice paper - 3D images in ink and wash 72 x 108 cm 30
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
Credit Card No.1 (信用卡 No.1) 2010 Colour on rice paper - 3D images in ink and wash 172 x 124cm
Credit Card No.2 (信用卡 No.2) 2010 Colour on rice paper - 3D images in ink and wash 172 x 124 cm
Credit Card No.3 (信用卡 No.3) 2011 Colour on rice paper - 3D images in ink and wash 172 x 124 cm 32
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
1953 Chinese Bank Note A (1953荳ｭ蝗ｽ髓ｱ蟶、) 2010 Colour on rice paper - 3D images in ink and wash 172 x 124 cm 34
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Nan Qi Red Halo Dot (南溪红色晕点) 2013 Colour on rice paper 70 x 140 cm 36
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
Nan Qi’s Dot A/B/C (南溪晕点A/B/C) 2013 Colour on rice paper 70 x 70 cm (each) 38
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
Fortune Dot (�炚) 2006 Ink and Tibetan incense on rice paper 155 x 124 cm 40
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
Portrait of Chairman Mao (毛主席像) 2006 Ink on rice paper 154 x 124 cm 42
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
1949 Portrait of Chairman Mao (1949 毛主席像) 2009 Colour on rice paper 158 x 123 cm 44
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
One Thousand RMB Note No.2 (千元大钞No.2) 2008 Colour on rice paper 124 x 248 cm 46
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
Horse Racing (马照跑) 2013 Colour on rice paper 124 × 248 cm 48
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
Chinese Female Soldier A/B (中国女兵A/B) 2013 Colour on rice paper 70 x 70 cm (each) 50
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
Yangtze River Three Gorges (长江三峡) 2013 Colour on rice paper 46 x 96 cm
Guilin Lijiang Landscape (桂林漓江山水) 2013 Colour on rice paper 46 x 96 cm 52
South China Sea Southern Heaven Rock (南海南天一柱) 2013 Colour on rice paper 46 x 96 cm
Mt. Everest (珠穆朗玛峰) 2013 Colour on rice paper 46 x 96 cm 53
Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
Yellow River Hukou (黄河壶口) 2013 Colour on rice paper 46 x 96 cm 54
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Curriculum Vitae
NAN Qi (Born in 1960) Yongkang, Zhejiang, China Education 1986
Graduated from the Chinese painting course at People’s Liberation Army Fine Arts Academy, Beijing, China Lives and works in China
Awards and Distinctions 2003 2002 2000 1999 1996 1988 1987 2009
“The 2nd Golden Award Exhibition of Chinese Art” Excellence Award, Chinese Federation of Literature, Yanhuang Art Museum, Beijing, China “European International Fine Arts Exchange” Contribution Award, Rotterdam, Netherlands “Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau 2000 Art Exhibition” Best Work Award, City University, Hong Kong “The 9th Chinese National Art Exhibition” Excellence Award, National Museum of Art, Beijing, China “19th Japanese International Art Exhibition” Special Association Award, Ginza Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan “Great Wall Exhibition” Second Prize, National Museum of Art, Beijing, China “Celebratory Exhibition for the 60th Anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army” Excellence Award, National Museum of Art, Beijing, China Presidential Prize in the 41st Korean Culture and Art Prize, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Seoul, Korea
Solo Exhibitions 2013 2011 2006 1998 1997 1989
“Authority Sex Money”, Art Plural Gallery, Singapore “Digital Ink Images: Art by Nan Qi”, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China “Eerie 3-D: 3-D Ink Fine Art by Nan Qi”, G-Dot Art Space, Songzhuang, Beijing, China “Ink and Sex Series: Works by Nan Qi”, Yisulang Gallery, Singapore “Landscape and Seascape: Nan Qi Ink Painting Exhibition”, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong “Ink Paintings by Nan Qi”, Xianggena Gallery, Shanghai, China “Landscape Paintings by Nan Qi”, National Museum of Art (Confucius Temple), Beijing, China
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Foreword Introduction Recent works Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
1980 Chinese Bank Note A (1980荳ｭ蝗ｽ髓ｱ蟶、) 2010 Colour on rice paper - 3D images in ink and wash 172 x 124 cm 58
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Foreword
Selected Group Exhibitions
Introduction Recent works
2013
Curriculum Vitae Acknowledgements
2012 2011 2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
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“In Retrospect - An Exhibition of Works by Nan Qi, Cai Guangbin, and Zhang Quan” G-Dot Art Space, Songzhuang, Beijing, China “Re-History: Chinese Contemporary Art Invitational Touring Exhibition”, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China; G-Dot Art Space, Beijing, China; Today Art Museum, Beijing, China “Ink New Dimension: 1st Nomination Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Ink” Contemporary International Art Fair Miami, USA “Re-History: Chinese Contemporary Art Invitational Touring Exhibition”, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China; G-Dot Art Space, Beijing, China; Hubei Art Museum, Hubei, China The China Art Federation’s “China Art Exhibition”, Royal Academy of Art, London, UK Art Beijing 2011 Contemporary Art Fair, Chinese Agricultural Exhibition Centre, Beijing, China 4th Beijing International Art Biennale, National Museum of Art, Beijing China International Gallery Expo, China World Trade Center, Beijing, China Art Beijing 2010 Contemporary Art Fair, Chinese Agricultural Exhibition Centre, Beijing, China Beijing Biennale 2010, Caochangdi Art Gallery, Beijing, China “Through History” Contemporary Art Invitational Exhibition, G-Dot Art Space, Songzhuang, Beijing “Historical Image” Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen; Hubei Contemporary Art Gallery, Hubei, China China International Gallery Expo, China World Trade Center, Beijing, China Art Beijing 2009 Contemporary Art Fair, Chinese Agricultural Exhibition Centre, Beijing, China 3rd Beijing International Art Biennale, National Museum of Art, Beijing, China “Songzhuang Life” Autumn Exhibition, Songzhuang Art Centre, Beijing, China “Catharsis” Invitational Exhibition, LDX Gallery, Beijing, China “Ink/Not Ink” Chinese Contemporary Ink Painting Invitational Exhibition, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China; Today Art Museum, Beijing, China; Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, USA 6th Shenzhen International Ink Painting Biennale, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China “Asia in Harmony” 23rd Asian International Art Exhibition, City Art Museum of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou, China “Chinese Contemporary Portraits – Chinese Ink” Invitational Exhibition, Mingyuan Art Center, Shanghai, China Art Beijing, China Contemporary Art Fair, Chinese Agricultural Exhibition Centre, Beijing, China “Chinese Desires: Li Jin, Wu Yi, Nan Qi”, The Luxe Art Museum, Singapore 3rd Chengdu Biennale, Contemporary Art Museum, Chengdu, China The 2nd Invitational Exhibition of the Songzhuang Ink Painters Society, Songzhuang East Arts Centre, Beijing, China 2nd “Exhibition of Chinese Art Today”, National Museum of Art, Beijing, China “Contemporary Ink” Invitational Exhibition, Songzhuang East Arts Centre, Beijing “Ink and Sex” Invitational Exhibition, A.R.T. Gallery, Beijing, China “Waves: Contemporary Chinese Ink and Wash Methods”, Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, Tianjin, China “Chinese Ink and Wash Documenta 1976-2006”, Nanjing National Museum, Nanjing, China 2nd Beijing International Art Biennale, National Museum of Art, Beijing, China “Extreme Brushwork: Leading Fine Arts Ink and Wash Invitational Exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China “New Expressionist” Chinese Ink Painting Invitational Exhibition National Museum of Art, Beijing, China 4th Shenzhen International Ink Painting Biennale: Ink/Wash and the City, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China “New Works by Six New Expressionist Chinese Painters”, Yisulang Gallery, Singapore
2003
2002 2000 1990
1st Beijing International Art Biennale, National Museum of Art, Beijing, China “New Expressionist” Chinese Ink Painting Invitational Exhibition 2003, Yan Huang Art Museum, Beijing, China 3rd Shenzhen International Ink Painting Biennale: Ink/Wash and the City, Guan Shanyue Museum, Shenzhen, China 2nd Shenzhen International Ink Painting Biennale: Ink/Wash and the City, Guan Shanyue Museum, Shenzhen, China “Exhibition of Chinese Paintings by Liu Dawei and Nan Qi”, Changfugong Arts Centre, Beijing, China
Publications 2013 2012 2011 2009
2008 2007 2006 2005
“Nan Qi”, Catalogue for the Authority Sex Money exhibition, Art Plural Gallery, Singapore “Nan Qi: Contemporary Ink Painting”, Catalogue for the China Art Exhibition, Royal Academy of Art, London, UK Cover Story, Oriental Art: Master. March 2011. Issue 225 Cover Story, Oriental Art: Chinese Painting. November 2011. Issue 242 Cover Story: “City Index”, Map Magazine. June 2009. Issue 96 Cover Story: “Nan Qi: Speaking from a Bottle of Red Wine”, Loft Art. October 2009. Vol 9. No.10 “Conjunction of East and West: Ink and Wash Works by Nan Qi”, Exhibition Catalogue Cover Story: “Nan Qi”, Asian Art News. Aug 2008. Vol 18. No. 4 Cover Story, Guohua Dajia. December 2007. Issue 9 Cover Story, Art Guide. Issue 3. Beijing Chinese Art Publications. “Historic Taiwanese Architecture” Set of 5 stamps designed by Nan Qi and Tian Liming, Hong Kong. In circulation from January 30th
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Acknowledgements
Foreword by Mr Chong Huai Seng Introduction by Mr Kwok Kian Chow Special Thanks to Mr Chong Huai Seng Conception Carole de Senarclens Frédéric de Senarclens Vijaya Krishnan Editing Support Surinna Lai Lara Sedbon Wang Xiaofan Graphic Design mostra-design.com Photo Credits The Artist Printed in Singapore Dominie Press Pte Ltd Edition of 1000 copies Published in 2013 © the artist and the author ISBN 978-981-07-8040-1
38 Armenian Street Singapore 179 942 T +65 6636 8360 F +65 6636 8361 info@artpluralgallery.com www.artpluralgallery.com Opening hours from 11 am to 7 pm Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays 63