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The Rabbit Project

Group Show: Ai Weiwei, Nick Dong, Etsu Egami, Fu Xiaotong, GAMA, Guo Hongwei, Han Feng, Huang Benrui, Jasper Huang, Lu Shengzhong, Angela Lyn, Song Dong & Yin Xiuzhen, Pixy Liao, Song Xin, Taca Sui, Tan Siyuan, Wang Dongling, Wu Jian'an, Xiao Mao, Xie Xiaoze, Yang Jiechang, Yan Shanchun, Zheng Chongbin, Zhou Qian

January 28 – March 3, 2023

White Rabbit 白兔, 2022

Yang Jiechang 杨诘苍 

White Rabbit 白兔, 2022 

Ink on Xuan paper on linen 

49 ½ x 33 ½ in. (126 x 85 cm.) 

YJC-PTG-23001 

Meet Me in the Moonlight II, 2023

Angela Lyn 林安琪 

Meet Me in the Moonlight II, 2023 

Oil on canvas 

27 x 16 ¾ in. (69 x 42.5 cm.) 

A_L-PTG-23002 

Rabbit-001, 2022

Etsu Egami 江上越 

Rabbit-001, 2022 

Oil on canvas 

35 3/8 x 47 ¼ in. (90 x 120 cm.) 

E_E-PTG-23001 

72,760 pinpricks 72,760孔, 2022

Fu Xiaotong 付小桐 

72,760 pinpricks 72,760孔, 2022 

Handmade paper 手工宣纸 

45 5/8 x 26 in. (116 x 66 cm.) 

FXT-PAP-22023 

Moonlight 月光, 2022

GAMA 

Moonlight 月光, 2022 

Oil on canvas 

23 ¾ x 19 in. (60 x 48 cm.) 

GAM-PTG-22001 

No.2, 2022

Guo Hongwei 郭鸿蔚 

No.2, 2022 

Watercolor on paper 

22.4 x 29.9 in. (57 x 76 cm.) 

GHW-PTG-22001 

Rabbit and Carrot, 2022

Han Feng 韩枫 

Rabbit and Carrot, 2022 

Archival pigment print 

22 x 17.5 in. (56 x 44.5 cm.) 

H_F-PHO-22001 

“Drawing lesson 101 – this part is too dark, or it’s just a white bunny with a black butt”   《基本素描课程——这里太黑了,要不,它就是只长了个黑尾巴的小白兔吧!》, 2012

Huang Benrui 黄本蕊 

“Drawing lesson 101 – this part is too dark, or it’s just a white bunny with a black butt” 

《基本素描课程——这里太黑了,要不,它就是只长了个黑尾巴的小白兔吧!》, 2012 

Pigment inkjet print, AP 5/10 

23 x 29 in. (58.4 x 73.7 cm.) 

HBR-PRT-22002 

Rabbit Year · Hudson  兔年·赫德逊, 2022

Yan Shanchun 杨诘苍 

Rabbit Year · Hudson I 兔年·赫德逊 I, 2022 

Copper plate etching, edition of 30 

19 x 19 in. (48.3 x 48.3 cm.) 

YSC-PRT-22001 

Wise Jackalpoe 智慧禄角兔, 2022

Song Xin 宋昕 

Wise Jackalpoe 智慧禄角兔, 2022 

Mixed martial and papercut collage on paper, Silk thread embroidery 

33x33 in (84 x 84 cm) 

S_X-PAP-23001 

The Grumpy Rabbit, 2015

Pixy Liao 廖逸君 

The Grumpy Rabbit, 2015 

Digital C print 
19 3/4 x 14 3/4 in. (50 x 37.5 cm.) 

Edition of 5 

P_L-PHO-22028 

Bunny Love Joy, 2022

Nick Dong 董承濂 

Bunny Love Joy, 2022 

Glass mirror, white concrete, epoxy coating, LED filaments, electronics, mechanical and audio components. Music by Stephen Carter Hicks 

18 x 18 x 11 in. (45.7 x 45.7 x 28 cm.) 

N_D-SCP-23001 

Mass 人民, 2022

Taca Sui 塔可 

Mass 人民, 2022 

Platinum Print 

5 7/8 x 7 7/8 in (15x 20 cm) 

T_S-PHO-23001 

Rabbit II 兔 II, 2022

Wang Dongling 王冬龄 

Rabbit II 兔 II, 2022 

Ink on paper 

24 x 19 ¾ in. (61 x 50.2 cm.) 

WDL-WOP-22001 

大展宏兔, 2023

Zhou Qian 周倩 

大展宏兔, 2023 

Acrylic on canvas 

37 x 23 in (94 x 58.4 cm) 

Z_Q-PTG-23001 

Auspicious Year of the Rabbit, 2022

Xie Xiaoze 谢晓泽 

Auspicious Year of the Rabbit, 2022  

ink and colors on Xuan paper 

21 3/8 x 47 3/8 in. (54.3 x 120.3 cm.) 

XXZ-WOP-23002 

Rabbit II 兔 II, 2022

Wu Jian’an 邬建安 

Rabbit II 兔 II, 2022 

Hand dyed and waxed papercut, cotton thread, paper  

31.5 x 25.6 in (80 x 65 cm) 

WJA-PAP-22002 

The Rabbit Project 

Chambers Fine Art is pleased to announce the opening on January 31, 2023 of The Rabbit Project, a celebration of the Year of the Rabbit and of the relationship between Christophe Mao, founder of Chambers Fine Art in 2000, and many of the artists who have been associated with the gallery in the past 22 years.  From Lewis Carroll’s White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland to Easter Bunnies and Playboy Bunnies, rabbits have multiple associations in Western culture but in China the rabbit has an entire year named after it, The Year of the Rabbit, and numerous legends that still resonate in Chinese society.  This year it begins on January 22 and ends on February 9, 2023.   

The rabbit is one of twelve animals in the Chinese Zodiac, preceded by the Tiger and followed by the Dragon. It is the luckiest of the twelve animals and symbolizes energy, elegance, and beauty. There are also legends associated with the moon rabbit dating back to the Warring States Period (475-221 BCE) in which it is companion to the moon goddess Change’e, pounding the elixir of life for her on its pestle. It lives on the moon with the toad and can be seen best on the moon on Mid-Autumn Day on August 15.   

As it happens, Christophe Mao was born in the Year of the Rabbit and thought it would be a good opportunity to bring together numerous artists to celebrate this beloved creature with works created especially for the occasion, whether or not their prior work appeared to be suited for this very specific subject matter. To his delight there was enormous enthusiasm, and after a preliminary display at Phillips January 28, the entire group will be exhibited at Chambers Fine Art from January 31 to February 28. While in some cases, artists adapted their characteristic style to unfamiliar subject matter, others moved far beyond comfort zone and allowed the furry creature to suggest a new approach.   

Wang Dongling (b.1945), one of the foremost calligraphers in China whose work is included in numerous museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum, is represented by a substantial calligraphic presentation of the character for the word ‘rabbit’. In contrast, Yan Shanchun (b. 1957), known for his poetic meditations on the landscape surrounding the celebrated West Lake in Hangzhou, refers to the legend of the moon rabbit in a suite of etchings while Yang Jiechang (b. 1956) departs further from classical styles, freely combining elements of traditional Eastern and Western modes of representation.   

Another group of artists take its inspiration from an entirely different Chinese tradition, namely the technique of paper cut associated with Chinese folk art. Wu Jian’an (b.1980) and Song Xin (b. 1970) were pupils of Lu Shengzhong (1952 – 2022), professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing, whose study of Chinese folk art led to the development of his own life-long practice of this technique. White Rabbit for Chris was presented to Christophe Mao on his fiftieth birthday. Wu Jian’an and Song Xin have both created colorful paper cuts of a rabbit’s head. Fu Xiaotong (b. 1976) was a pupil of Wu Jian’an although she developed a highly individual technique, using a needle to pierce sheets of Xuan paper many thousands of times. Her two rabbits, titled after the number of pinpricks as is always the case in her work, are a departure from her current more abstract mode.  

There is no lack of direct representations of rabbits, however, whether from painters such as Angela Lyn (b. 1955) whose rabbit is imposing in scale and in the directness of its gaze or in the typically humorous rabbits of Guo Hongwei (b. 1982) who had already devoted considerable attention to pandas in his recent paintings and watercolors. GAMA (b.1977) comes closest to the present day in his depiction of young lovers gazing at the moon.    

Even artists whose practice is far-removed from realism such as Nick Dong (b. 1973) whose StudioDONG creates “experiential sculptures, objects and installations” and Han Feng (b. 1972), well known both for her clothing and installations and for her costume designs for the Anthony Mingella production of Madame Butterfly, welcomed the challenge.   

Photographers were not left out of this rabbit fest. Divergent in all respects, Pixy Liao (b. 1975) and Taca Sui (b.1984), respond as one might expect to the rabbit, Pixy using one to conceal the private parts of her muse Moro. Taca, evoking a spectral creature behind bars, its diminutive scale emphasized by the overwhelming, hand-picked frame.  Mention should also be made of the erudite homage to the iconography of the rabbit ranging from Albrecht Durer to Jeff Koons by distinguished painter Xiaoze Xie (b. 1966), and videos by husband-and-wife team, Song Dong (b.1966) and Yin Xiuzhen (b.1963), referencing their ongoing theme of chopsticks, and Zheng Chongbin (b. 1961) in which a rabbit emerges from the shadows in a tantalizingly brief video.   

For more information, please contact us at cfa@chambersfineart.com 

 

 

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