Contemporary Press Report
Gong Xi Fa Cai Exhibition Opens in Chelsea for Chinese New Year
Qiao Bao New York · Chen Rubin · February 17, 2013, 16:00:15
An oil-painting exhibition titled Gong Xi Fa Cai opened at Song Gallery in Chelsea on February 10, Chinese New Year. Four monumental images of renminbi were made by New York-based artist Stone Chun Shi with oil paint on canvas in a mosaic-like arrangement. From a distance they resemble a 100-yuan note; up close they reveal carefully arranged grids of color, moving between representation and abstraction.
At the opening, Stone said he had spent more than a decade traveling between China and the United States. He arrived in New York in the 1980s and worked in the arts before entering business. These experiences led him to see renminbi as a totem of contemporary Chinese life and a central element in many people’s lives.
Stone described renminbi as a key symbol of China’s transition from a planned economy to a market economy and an important factor in its development. As China’s economy grew, he believed, its currency would exert influence across a wider global arena.
Song Gallery curator Sonia Hu said this was the gallery’s first solo exhibition by a contemporary Chinese artist. She hoped it would draw New York art lovers’ attention to China and contemporary Chinese art. The gallery planned to present more Chinese artists, fostering exchanges with their American peers through Chelsea’s gallery district.
The opening attracted nearly one hundred Chinese and other art enthusiasts. The exhibition continued through March 28.