Boxes ：Teng Fei, Tan Ping - OCT Boxes Art Museum

Introduction

Boxes can be seen everywhere, sometimes they are physical storage, organizing and packaging; sometimes they are the magic of the space, a design masterpiece, a modernist building, constructing between the exhibition hall, aisle and the pillars in the museum. There is a relationship between large and small, far and near, internal and external. While "Boxes" always points to emotions and spirituality, about how do people utilize them, cherish them, or discard them? Is it a proof of life in a suitcase, or is it a secret place of love and pain? Throughout the long history, boxes have always carried a variety of claims and stories, expressing the volition of different times and carrying unique technology, aesthetics, morality and values.

Boxes have a unique position in art history, icon boxes in the Western Middle Ages, Buddhist niches and the treasure boxes in Chinese culture. Once
Pandora's box has opened, the narrative of history continues to flow. Until Duchamp's Box in a Suitcase and the emergence of conceptual art, the
review of the self in the 'portable museum', the combination and redefinition of 'unfamiliar objects', that the box became a classic vessel for art and perception.

In Teng Fei's masterpieces, boxes are always related to memories, temperature and the texture of life. Boxes in different dimensions, materials and forms carries various emotions and stories. "Old property " scattered throughout the space, boxes containing objects in deferent colors, from plasticized flowers to tattered fabric with rings, to shimmering blue gems and colorful pocket-sized angel statues. Inside a pastries box called "Tao Xiang Cun", there is a dried pomegranate, a silent stone and a beehive that has been abandoned somehow. Between these objects and boxes lies a distance and a time that holds the joys and misfortunes, warm and cherished, but also forgotten and distant memories. At the corner of the museum, the iron boxes piled up on the floor have been dried out by external forces and time, and Teng Fei has taken an anthropomorphic portrait of their former vibrancy. Inside the frames, the functions and volition that they were once proud of disappeared at some point. Now they have been revitalized, given a symbolic and guiding meaning by the artist. The boxes are used to crystallized in Teng Fei’s cases, so as to letters to time in a printer, or a frozen swimming motion in a glass fish tank, where memory and life are always shining, swaying and ups and downs.

At the entrance to the museum, in the dark of several pillars, the blue suitcase holds a few strands of hair that fell 12 years ago. In the distance, a butterfly solidifies into metal, as if an insect were chirping softly in a tree. Meanwhile, a large drop of pine oil was failing at this position. All the misadventures turned into a piece of amber tens of thousands of years later.

The box has always been associated with our walks and carried around, rolling into rolls of film behind us. However, as long as the history of the box is, how long will it take to reflect on and reconstruct it. However, the duration of box history, is as long as the reflection and reconstruction. Different from Teng Fei, Tan Ping offers us another dimension of gazing at the "box". He takes the space in the box as the subject of his research and questions, changing the physical form and psychological feeling of the space through the changes of light and shadow, the distribution and switching of light tubes. As the reflections that started from minimalism Dan Flavin, the lamp becomes the line in the work. When it lights up and goes out, the light that spills out or the shape of the lamp, which is the work again?

In Shan Shui Jing, the brushstrokes broke the limitation of space once again. Those lines left in and around the corners of the picture, which are the art we understand in our experience, and which are accidental outside the routine. If art is unpreserved traces, traces outside the picture, is it still art?

At the end of the exhibition, the discussion about space returns to reality. Tan Ping has always only been able to walk around the house repeatedly over the past three years. Those routes and traces that are completely different day after day are always endlessly looping inside. What subtle emotions, states of mind, and consciousness they have carried and reflected over the course of several years. However, whatever the reality, it ultimately points to the core part of Tan Ping's works, how the infinite variables of space and modulus in art are explored through different media.

For this exhibition, "Box" is not only the theme and title of the works, but also an introduction to mortality and creation. Teng Fei and Tan Ping present us with two completely different gazes, which together are the two sides of the same coin. Like the proportional relationship between light and shadow, in the balance between light and dark, the middle ground between the sensual and the rational, the mystery of art that exists in the gap between the infinite openness and the limits given.

Behind the Boxes Art museum, or in a wider concept of the white cube spaces, endless stories and artistic changes have taken place.

Curator：Cui Cancan

May. 5th, 2023

artist

Teng Fei

Professor, Ph.D. supervisor Teng Fei, is the founder of the Jewelry Department at China Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA). She received the Gold Award for Jewelry Design in the 10th National Fine Arts Exhibition, New Century Outstanding Talent Award by the Ministry of Education, and the title of “Jewelry Design Master” of China. She is the Deputy Director of the Arts and Crafts Committee of the China Artists Association, Executive Deputy Director of the Jewelry Designers Association of the Gems & Jewelry Trade Association of China.

Teng Fei graduated from the Fine Arts School attached to CAFA in 1983. received her B.A. degree from CAFA in 1987. In 1990 she pursued further study in Germany and completed an MFA program in Hochschule der Kunst Berlin in 1995.

Her Important solo exhibitions include “Is Noah’s Ark Still There?—Exhibition of works by Teng Fei” in 2021; “Plumtree Scent: Contemporary Jewelry by Teng Fei” in 2017; “寸·光阴Ctrl.+S Exhibition of works by Teng Fei” in 2011; “Palate ·Pleased Exhibition of Jewelry Art by Teng Fei” in 2007. Teng Fei’s works have been collected by National Art Museum of China; Angewandte Kunstmuseum Hamburg, Germany; the Pompidou Center, France; Kunsthalle Krems Niederösterreich, Austria; Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark, and collectors at home and abroad. Her work “Plum Blossom” series are in the collection of Presidents and First Ladies of Brazil, United States, France, Portugal and Russia as National Presents.

Teng Fei has published widely on material art and jewelry design education, such as “Plumtree Scent: Contemporary Jewelry by Teng Fei” in 2018; “Ten years—Re: jewelry—CAFA & International Contemporary Jewelry BBS literature” in 2013; “Ten years—Re: Jewelry—CAFA & International Contemporary Jewelry” in 2012; “寸·光阴Ctrl.+S” in 2011; “Floating Pearls—Jewelry collection of Teng Fei”, “As Time Elapses”, “Life—We are the same we are different” in 2010; “Jewelry Design—Allegory of the Body” in 2006; “Intelligent Symbols—An Experimental Course in Jewelry Design”, “Flying in Dream—Teng Fei’s Prose” in 2004; “New Vision in Material”, “The Journey of the Spirit” in 2000.

She organized the “Baggage – Coffee & Tea”—Three Years Teaching and Exhibition Program on Jewelry of the CAFA and Cranbrook Academy of Art from 2014 to 2017; “IDENTITY—CAFA Meets Danish Jewelry” in 2015; “Teng Fei Contemporary Jewelry Art Exhibition” in 2014; “Ten Years—Re: Jewelry—CAFA & International exhibition of Contemporary jewelry” and Symposium of “Jewelry Art and Education” in 2012; “2008 Beijing Olympics·Jewelry Art Exhibition” in 2008; “Once upon a Time: Chinese and Australian Jewelry Exhibition” and “Traditional Craftsmanship Reconstructed: China Contemporary Jewelry Exhibition” in 2007; the first “International Jewelry Exhibition” and the Symposium on “Future Human Lifestyle and Jewelry” in 2002.

Teng Fei was the first person in China in the 1990's to promote the idea of “jewelry design tailored for each individual”, and emphasize the humanistic care of jewelry art.

Tan Ping

Tan Ping Born in Hebei Province, China in 1960, Tan Ping is now professor and doctoral tutor of Chinese National Academy of Arts. He graduated from the Department of Printmaking, Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1984 and stayed on campus for teaching. He was awarded DAAD scholarship for further study at the Free Painting Department, Berlin University of the Arts, Germany from 1989 to 1994. In 2002, he was appointed as Dean of the School of Design, Central Academy of Fine Arts. In 2003, he was promoted to Vice President of Central Academy of Fine Arts. In 2014, he became Vice President of Chinese National Academy of Arts, Director of Experimental Art Committee of China Artists Association and Director of National Research Center for Contemporary Art concurrently.His works are collected by multiple major institutions in China and abroad, including the National Art of China, Shanghai Art Museum, CAFA Art Museum, Kolding Museum of Modern Arts, Portland Art Museum, Ludwig Museum, ASU Art Museum.

Major solo exhibitions：

2023 “On Paper·Tan Ping’s Work Exhibition”,CAN Art Center, Beijing,China

2022 "Ask Again: Tan Ping Painting”, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangdong, China

2022 "Tan Ping: Internal Cycle”, ZiWU, Beijing, China

2021 "Tan Ping: What is Painting”, TANG Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

2020 "2020: Tan Ping Site-specific", Artron Art Center, Shenzhen, China

2019 "Duet: A Tan Ping Retrospective", YUZ MUSEUM, Shanghai, China

2017 "……", Yuan Art Museum, Beijing, China

2017 "TAN PING", Horsens Museum of Modern Art, Horsens, Denmark

2015 "Tan Ping: Follow My Line", ASU Art Museum, Tempe, USA

2015 "Drawing”The Art of Tan Ping, Ginkgo Space, Beijing, China

2012 "A Line", Tan Ping Solo Exhibition, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China

2011 Tan Ping Prints Exhibition, German Embassy, Beijing, China

2008 Tan Ping Works Exhibition, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China

2008 "A Metaphor of the Painful" Tan Ping Works Exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

2005 Tan Ping Works Exhibition, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China

2000 Tan Ping Prints Exhibition, Berlin Art Loft, Berlin, Germany

1995 Tan Ping Works Exhibition, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, China

1994 "Beijing – Berlin" Tan Ping Prints Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

Selected Group Exhibitions：

2020 “In Thinking – the Intellectual History and Methodologies of Chinese Contemporary Art”, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangdong, China

2017 “Chinese Spirit - The 4th Chinese Oil Painting Exhibition (Section 3) Abstractionism - Non-fugurative Oil Painting Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Art”, Today Art Museum, Beijing, ChinaToday Art Museum, Beijing, China

2017 “Abstraction and Beyond - A Research-based Tour Exhibition of Chinese Art”, Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China

2016 "The Research Exhibition of Abstract Art in China", Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

2016 "Beyond Every Mountain Is Another Mountain - A Meeting of Contemporary Art From China and Switzerland", Helmhaus Museum, Zurich, Switzerland

2015 "Nonfigurative", Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China

2010 "The Great Celestial Abstract – Chinese Abstract Art in 21st century", National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China

2008 "Yipai”– 30 Years of Chinese Abstract Art, Caixa Forum, Madrid, Spain

Cui Cancan

He has curated more than one hundred and fifty significant exhibitions and events since 2012, representing group exhibitions including “Heiqiao Night Away”, “Rural Wash-Blow-Dry”, “Unlived by What is Seen”, “Between the 5th and 6th Ring Road in Beijing”, “The Decameron”, “Rip It Up!”, “2015-2019 Spring Festival Special Series”, “The Curation Workshop”, “Nine-Tiered Pagoda”, “The Methodology of the New Generation”, and “Hometown Spring”, “Disconnected Generation”, “Chengdu Biennale”, “The Trans-Southeast Asia Triennial”, “Chongqing Video Biennale”, etc.

He has also organized major solo exhibitions on artists, including Ai Weiwei, Bao Xiaowei, Chen Danqing, Chen Yufan, Chen Yujun, Cai Lei, Feng Lin, Han Dong, He Yunchang, Huang Yishan, Jiang Bo, Luo Zhongli, Li Bingyuan, Liu Wei, Liu Gangshun, Liu Jianhua, Li Qing, Li Ji, Li Zhanyang, Mu Er, Ma Ke, Mao Yan, Qin Ga, Qin Qi, Sui Jianguo, Shi Jie Zi Museum, Shi Jinsong, Shen Shaomin, Tan Ping, Wang Qingsong, Xie Nanxing, Xia Xiaowan, Xia Xing, Xiao Yu, Xu Zhongmin, Xu Xiaoguo, Yin Chaoyang, Yuan Yunsheng, Zong Ning, Mao Yan, Polit-Sheer- Form, Zhang Yue, Zhao Zhao, Zhao Bandi, etc.; collaborated with architects including Yung Ho Chang, Ma Yansong, Liu Xiaodu, Wang Hui, Wang Zigeng, Li Han, Wu Linshou, Xu Tiantian, He Jianxiang, etc..

The awards include CCAA Chinese Contemporary Art Review Special Honor Award in 2013, YISHU Chinese Contemporary Art Criticism Award in 2013, AAC Art China Curator of the Year nomination in 2013, Art Finance Curator of the Year in 2014, Hi Art Curator of the Year in 2014-2021, 2014 Chinese Youth Curator of the Year, 2014 Art 289 Curator of the Year Nomination, 2015 The Art Newspaper Asian Art Contribution Award Lincoln Curator Award Nomination, 2015 Best Artist Solo Exhibition of the Year by Taiwan Contemporary Art News, 2015 Art Bank Curator of the Year, 2016 Art Power List Exhibition of the Year Award, 2016 National Art Annual Gold Star Award, the 2018 Beijing Gallery Week Best Exhibition Award, 2018 Art Power List Curator of the Year, 2021 Best Curator of Asia by Contemporary Art News, 2020-2021 Curator of the Year by Robb Report, 2022 Best Exhibition Experience of the Year Award by Wallpaper, and many other media and institutions' Curator of the Year or Art Contribution Award.

Introduction

artist

Teng Fei

Tan Ping

Cui Cancan

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