Outros Portos - Outros Olhares

Curated by: Clara Brito & Gu Zhenqing

Opening: 09.07

Until: 30.08

Margarida Gouveia, Mina Ao, Peng Yun, Xing Danwen, O Zhang

Outros Portos - Outros Olhares is an exhibition dedicated to the theme of the feminine, which results from the selection of photographic works by five artists, women, who work with the theme of the female conscience in their works.

The present show stages a visual narrative that is organized into two significant axes in the current framework of the debate about the place of women as a political subject and, in a more general context, in the grammar of contemporary feminisms.

The first axis develops in the questioning of the fixist essentialisms around the woman subject and the views, politically and culturally, hegemonic in the societies where these artists fit. These are territories of violence, symbolic or material, from which the work of artists Danwen Xing, Margarida Gouveia and Mina Ao emerge - instead of surrendering to fear and reactive embarrassment, they try here a sincere look at how these artists feel and reflect these situations. Peng Yun, on the other hand, explores female curiosity about gender and the female body in an exercise of pleasure and discovery.

In a second axis of this exhibition, subsidiary to a certain extent from the previous one, it proposes a reflection on the power of culture and of female leaders in political contexts with a low density of rights and in which the female subject assumes particular centrality in the micropolitics and dynamics of recurring cultural negotiation.

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ARTISTS

Margarida Gouveia is a Macau and Portuguese artist who works with photography, video and installation. She received her MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art in London in 2012 and completed her Advanced Photography Studies at Ar.Co. – Independent Center of Arts (Lisbon) in 2004. She was a resident in ACME Studios International Program awarded by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation from October 2008 to October 2009 (London).Her work has been featured in several shows including: Orbit, The Mews Project Space (London); How Looking gets in the way of Seeing, Twelve around One Gallery (London); +1000 Altitude Photography Festival (Rossiniere, Switzerland); Chance Meeting on a Drawing Table of a Zebra and a Meteorite at ACME Project Space (London); BES Art – Espírito Santo Bank Collection, Berardo Museum (Lisbon); Propos des Lieux D’origine at MUDAM (Luxembourg) and PCCA at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon). In 2013 her artist book Map and Territory was selected by Kassel Photobook Award. She lives and works in London.

Through photography, Mina Ao explores the subjects of nature, culture and personal encounters. Each body of work is a discovery, using photography as a process to observe, ask questions, and bond with her subjects. Ao's work often involves the viewers in a cultural dialogue. Ao was born and grew up in Macau. After high school, she moved to North America and studied at York University, where she earned her Hons BSc. It was there that her story with photography began, when she took a course in analogue photography. Later, she left her job in information technology to work with leading photographers in New York City. Ao has lived in Hamilton for the past few years, where she continues to create bridges through photography. Mina Ao would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council for their generous support.

Peng Yun is a multimedia artist with a BFA in Oil Painting from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and a MFA in New Media from the China Academy of Arts. Professor Zhang Peili, the “Father” of Chinese Video Art, was her advisor. Her works have been displayed in art museums and galleries and were awarded in several film festivals. Video is her favourite form of art. Peng Yun has a strong sense of her identity as a female artist. Her work throughout the years shows her growth as she reflects on her own roles and her awakening at heart.

Xing Danwen started her visual art practice with painting medium in her teens. From 1982-1986, she took a 4 years professional study in painting at the primary art school affiliated to Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts. From 1989-1992, she continued painting and did her BFA at Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

In the late 80s, coincidentally she met photography and was immediately drawn into this medium. As a self-taught photographer, she was the one of a few artists in late 80s and 90s in China that was exploring the bounderies of photography and using photography as an art form. Through the camera, she observed and challenged the questions on the Chinese society, humanity, female identity and the generation that was born 60s.

In 1998, she went to New York with a grant and fellowship from Asian Cultural Council. From 1998-2001, she did her MFA at School of Visual Arts in New York with a chairman grant from SVA. 

This New York period challenged and enriched her artistic experience. In her current art practice she works, besides photography, also in the field of mixed media, video and multi-media installations.

Xing Danwen exhibits domestically and internationally, including Whitney Museum of American Art, Pompidou Center, International center for Photography, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1st Yokohama Triennale and Sydney Biennale 2004, etc. Her works are also collected widely by museums and privates, including Whitney Museum, Pompidou, ICP, SF MoMA, FNAC, the Progressive, Groupe Lhoist, etc. 

Her artistic practice is both rich and varied and her subjects include: Dislocation between cultural status, conflicts between globalization and traditions, problematic environmental issues created by the developemnt, the urban drama between the desire and reality. Fiction, truth and illusion often play an important role in her works. She currently lives and works in Beijing.

O Zhang is a Chinese artist working in photography and mix media. A graduate of Central Academy of Art in Beijing and Royal College of Art in London, Zhang has been primarily working in New York since 2004. Zhang was the recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Artist Fellowship and nominated/short listed for numerous awards including Chinese Contemporary Art Awards (Beijing), Beck’s Future Award (London) and Creative Capital Awards (New York). Her work has been included in exhibitions throughout the world, including Deutsche Guggenheim Museum (Berlin), Miro Museum (Barcelona), The Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), Museum of Contemporary Art (Shanghai), and is in the collections of Guggenheim Museum (New York), Santa Barbara Museum (CA), Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver) among others. Zhang gave a solo exhibition at the Queens Museum of Art (New York) in 2009. Zhang’s autobiography: "An Empire Where The Moon Light Never Fades" was on The Best Seller List in China. 

CURATORS

Clara brito was born in Portugal and holds a Graduate Degree in Equipment Design by the Lisbon School of Fine Arts. She also furthered studies of Fashion Design at the Milan Polytechnic Institute/School of Architecture and Design. In 2004 moved to Macau, 2006 establishing in 2006 together with designer Manuel Silva, Lines Lab. A creative agency on the global Lusophone Top 20 ranking by Monocle Magazine & A “Must See” according to the New York Times. 

In 2007 Clara co-founded the “Cultural Association +853” and the festival “This Is My City.”  A yearly multidisciplinary and multicultural event focused on Creativity, Innovation, Urban Culture and Technology.and showcasing local and international talent.

Since 2011 she has been working on promoting synergies that can improve the inter-cultural relations between Macau.China and Portuguese Speaking Countries (PSC). The exhibition AFRICA: SEE YOU, SEE ME! In Beijing as part of the Beijing Photo spring Festival and in 2012 at Macau art Museum. And theevent Macau Fashion Link (MFL) co-created with Manuel Silva and Architect Carlos Marreiros to promote and encourage local talents and industry to develop their potential and opportunities, in Macau, throughout the Pearl River Delta, and the Portuguese Speaking Countries. 

In 2014  co-founded Munhub - a commercial platform designed to curate and cross promote emerging design brands. 

In the year of 2017, Clara was a visiting Professor at USJ University and in 2019 finished her MBA at USJ University.

Gu Zhenqing. Born in Shanghai, China in 1964. Graduated from the History Department of Fudan University, Shanghai, China in 1987. Worked as the chief-curator of Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art in 2003-2007 and the director of 2004 Chinese Contemporary Art Awards in 2004. Worked as the as the assistant professor of the Fine Art Department of Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan in 2005.Worked as the chief-curator and executive director of Zhu Qizhan Art Museum, chief–editor of art magazine Visual Production in 2006-2007. Worked as art director of White Box Museum of Art, 798, Beijing and director of Li Space, Beijing and guest professor of Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, Xi'an and Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, Tianjin, China in 2009-2011. Worked as artistic director of Li-space Culture & Arts Center, Beijing, China in 2009-2018. Worked as executive director of Jia Pingwa Museum of Culture & Arts, Xi’an, China in 2014-2016. Worked as academic director of More Art Museum, Xiamen, China from 2017 to 2018. Work as a guest associate professor of the sculpture department of National Taiwan Art University, Taipei, Taiwan from 2018 to 2019. Currently lives and works in Beijing as a curator.

Here is the work of Zhang O - which reflects the questioning of the emergence of power in a culture when led by female integration. The exhibited works document the reflection of the extension, since 1991, of the chinese adoption law that led american families to adopt more than 55,000 chinese children, mostly girls. The aim is to reflect on the cultural exchange relations between these young girls, future women, their western families and their host country.

"Outros Portos - Outros Olhares" narrates a journey of sincerity and questioning freed from the constraints and bonds of fear, avoiding a reactive language opting for a positive and accepting look at how these artists feel and see the female gender.