China, Hong Kong, & Thailand

Artists by Nation - Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe 2015

By Sculpture by the Sea - Cottesloe

Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe

The Ascetic (2014) by Naidee ChangmohSculpture by the Sea - Cottesloe

Naidee Changmoh, Thailand

Sculptor and painter Naidee Changmoh’s practice is inspired by children and informed by memories from his own childhood, particularly of a Japanese TV cartoon series about a young monk. "When I was drawing at university," Changmoh recalls "I would think about this cartoon figure and create my own character, who had quite a large head. Always, part of my work has this (Buddhist) religious philosophy behind it." Though Changmoh studied painting as an art student, for the past 20 years his main interest has been in ceramics. Casting in bronze has been a natural progression. In the past few years, he has been invited to attend conferences and hold workshops in China, Singapore and Taiwan, Italy and the US and will travel to India and England in 2015. Last year Changmoh came to Australia by invitation to give a demonstration at the tri-annual national ceramic event held in central western New South Wales. He has also been commissioned to create a number of concrete sculptures for a Buddhist temple in Paris.

Mi No.5 (2013) by Wendi ZhangSculpture by the Sea - Cottesloe

Wendi Zhang, China

Wendi Zhang graduated from the Northeast Normal University
(Fine Arts College of Art and Design) with a master's degree. She has participated
in many international and domestic
sculpture exhibitions and has been awarded numerous prizes. Zhang uses
steel mesh to explore, understand and create a visual language, forming unique points
of view to form her personal artistic style.

 

The soft natural
shapes and hazy texture adopted in Zhang’s flamingos allow the eye
to jump easily from one form to another. She uses a Chinese red pigment to
increase and strengthen the visual impact. Her aim is to build a harmonious and
ecological visual effect.

"They gather shape to present a beautiful scene, creating a harmonious ecological visual effect."

Man on Ball (2014) by Wang ShugangSculpture by the Sea - Cottesloe

Wang Shugang, China

Born in 1960, Wang Shugang lives and works in Beijing. His works are internationally known and exhibited.

During the 1990’s Shugang lived in Germany for over a decade, choosing Essen and Duisburg, two former industrial hotspots in the so-called Ruhr area, as the centre of his life. It was there where he first made close contact with western art, exploring Modernism and German Expressionism. This had a lasting influence on Shugang’s oeuvre and can be seen in his work today. The artist’s ties with Germany possibly contributed to his receiving the Ernst Barlach Award in August last year. Shugang’s influence is also drawn from China, and the social life of the ‘simple, small people’, which he alludes to in his installations and sculpture ensembles. These refer to the loss of individualism in an increasingly fast paced world. Recently, Shugang has exhibited in the China Arte Brasil in Sao Paolo, Art Cologne in Germany, and Art14 in London.

Slip (2014) by Kirsteen PieterseSculpture by the Sea - Cottesloe

Kirsteen Pieterse, Hong Kong

Born in Scotland, Kirsteen Pieterse studied Art in Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art. She now lives and works in Hong Kong, after moving from Australia where she has exhibited widely and lectured at Macquarie University and the University of Sydney. Pieterse draws on a keen interest in the landscape and the man-made structures within it. Her stainless steel and acrylic sculptures allude to abandoned buildings and those left in a state of collapse, standing alone in the landscape. These vacant structures are discarded as victims of time and erosion. In 2004 Pieterse won the People’s Choice Award at the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, and in 2005 she was a finalist in the National Sculpture Prize and Exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia.

Pieterse has exhibited widely in Australia and Hong Kong. In 2009 she completed a sculpture for the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and two public commissions in Hong Kong in 2010.

Ocean 1-5 (2014) by Guan WeiSculpture by the Sea - Cottesloe

Guan Wei, China

Guan Wei was born in Beijing, 1957. He was a 1986 graduate from
the Department of Fine Arts at Beijing Capital University, thereafter moving to Australia, in 1989. In 2008 Wei returned to China and set up a studio in Beijing. He now
lives and works in both Beijing and Sydney. He has won many art prizes in
Australia including the Art Gallery of NSW Sulman Prize; Gold Coast City Gonrad
Jupiters Art Prize; Nillumbik Art Award VIC; Mosman Art Prize Sydney; 39th
Festival of Fisher’s Ghost and Campbelltown Art Gallery Sydney. He has also
completed various public commissions such as  the Sydney 2000 Olympic Game
poster; Mural Painting for 700 Collins St Docklands Melbourne; SBS &
Australian Centre for the Moving Image and the MCA Sydney new building foyer
mural. Wei's work is held in major public collections and universities,
corporate and private collections. He has held more then 50 solo exhibitions
internationally and has been included in many important contemporary
exhibitions, such as the Shanghai Biennial; the Cuba 10th Havana Biennial;
Australian Adelaide Biennial, the Third Asia Pacific Triennial; Japan's Osaka
Triennial and the Kwangju Biennale.

"Inspired by Chinese Buddhist statues and the lotus-seat of the Tathagata Buddha. The body stretches freely in the water, expressing a rejection of political, social and commercial constraints".

Harbour (2014) by Chen WenlingSculpture by the Sea - Cottesloe

Chen Wenling, China

Chen Wenling is recognised as one of the top contemporary sculptors in China today. Born in 1969 in Anxi, a remote village in Fujian province, Wenling remembers his family being so poor that his parents could not afford to buy him toys and he grew up making figurines out of clay to entertain himself. He counts himself lucky because his parents encouraged his artistic talent and Wenling went on to study at the Xiamen Academy of Art and Design, and then at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. The two main themes of Wenling’s sculptures are the manifestations of extreme humanity and immaterial images in a consumerist society. This is evident through his Red Boy series. It is neither realism nor vanguard sculpture, but instead the artists expression of himself to the critical state of life.

Following a number of prestigious exhibitions, such as Art Basel in Switzerland and the Shanghai Biennale, Wenling participated in Sculpture by the Sea at Cottesloe in 2011, winning the People's Choice Award. In 2011, the artist exhibited at Sculpture by the Sea in Aarhus and his work Red Memory - Shy Boy was purchased by the City of Aarhus.

Credits: Story

SxS Cultural Institute Online Producers:

Eleanor Cheetham

Louella Hayes

Photographers:

Jessica Wyld

Kate Drennan

Clyde Yee

Jarrad Seng


To find out about upcoming exhibitions:


Sculpture by the Sea


For more exhibition film:

Sculpture by the Sea YouTube

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions (listed below) who have supplied the content.
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