Daily News
ACIAC Art Exhibition: Adam Chang's Pandas and Treasures
From: Shirley Wong
Valid from: Tuesday 21 May 2019 to Wednesday 19 June 2019
Exhibition Details
Date: 13 May – 12 July
Venue: Building EA.G.03, Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture (ACIAC) Gallery, Parramatta South Campus, Western Sydney University, Corner of James Ruse Drive and Victoria Road, Rydalmere
Gallery Opening Hours: Monday – Thursday 10.00am – 3.00pm, Friday 11.00am - 3.00pm
Dr Sheng Tong, Editor-in-Chief, Contemporary International Chinese Poetry and Research fellow, International Diaspora Literature and Art Research Association, wrote in January 2019:
From ‘human beings’ to ‘Shan Shui with Panda’, the theme of Adam Chang’s paintings has shifted from the ‘national treasure’ level cultural celebrity portraits to the grand environmentalist natural kingdom series. Many claimed to have been stunned by the ‘sudden change’ of identity that is happening to a ‘portrait artist’. In fact, this feeling of shock could only have resulted from a misreading of him - although Chang has been internationally acclaimed for his impressive achievements in the art of portraiture, this represented only the tip of the iceberg in the bulk of his artistic attainment. The recent launch of his ‘Shan Shui with Panda’ series should be useful in drawing the attention of the international art world to the breadth of Chang’s artistic thinking and his aesthetic magnitude.
Adam Chang is often referred to as ‘a quiet artist’. This is because he, like a ‘hermit’, rarely has any contact with the world outside his studio. This seems to bear a connection with the spiritual ‘inertia’ of the asceticist practice of a senior generation of artists such as Zhao Wuji and Zhu Dequn. The difference is that Chang does not directly draw from the theory of ‘yijing’ (artistic conception) in traditional Chinese painting; instead, he follows the Taoist view of ‘Nature and Man in One’. Following the core concept of ‘harmony’, he is now moving his reflections from about ‘human beings’ to the ultimate realm of harmony between ‘Man and Nature’.
From the 2007 Australian national Archibald Prize finalist ‘Brian, the Dog and the Doorway’ to the 2011 People’s Choice Winner ‘John Coetzee’, from the shocking surrealist portrait ‘Salvador Dali’ (2017) to today’s high-profile ‘symbol of China’ combination ‘Shan Shui with Panda’, the new exhibition ‘Adam Chang’s Pandas and Treasures’ very well ‘captures’ some of most representative works of his ‘transitional period’...
Artist biography
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Adam Chang, born in Shanghai in 1960, was deeply inspired by traditional Chinese calligraphy and art in his childhood. And when he was in the middle school, he started to practice live drawing. He did it for five years. During this time, he started to access Western art and the work of the impressionist master Vincent van Gogh became an indelible influence.
Thanks to the reform policies, Chang became one of the first Chinese artists in the 1980s to hold a solo exhibition in China, and soon afterwards, his artworks started to appear in all the important exhibitions in the country.
In 1987, three of his works were chosen for an exhibition in the First Shanghai International Arts Festival, where they were displayed side by side with the masterpieces by other Chinese master artists such as Liu Haisu and Yan Wenliang. This event granted him his earlier reputation in the art circles of Shanghai as one of the most prominent artists across China.
More about Chang's career - from his move to Sydney to start his artistic career in Australia in 1997, to finalist nominations in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (and ultimate win the Third Best Work and Most Popular Work Prizes, voted by the public), his selection in 2001 as one of the 24 Most Outstanding Artists in Australia, and his successful entries into the Archibald Prize of the Art Gallery of NSW. In 2006, Chang was awarded the title of 'Official Artist' by Australian Council of the Arts.
Chang remains the only Chinese Australian artist that has signed agent deals with both European and Australian galleries.