Inside Out: New Chinese Art

“Inside Out: New Chinese Art”, presented in partnership with the Tacoma Art Museum, was the first major international exhibition to explore how the momentous political, economic and social changes of the late 20th century spurred artists of the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as Chinese artists living abroad. This engaging and provocative exhibition included works in a variety of media: oil on canvas, ink on paper, video, installation, and performance art. The accelerated rate of change in Chinese societies during the decade covered by this exhibition (late 1980s to the late 1990s) was evident, as were enduring features of Chinese cultural and artistic traditions.

Encompassing a greater range of artistic media and forms than any previous exhibition of contemporary Chinese art, the exhibition included over 80 works by nearly 60 artists. Most of the work dated from the watershed political events in 1989 at Tiananmen Square to the present, a decade during which concepts of ‘modernity’ and ‘identity’ underwent rapid transformation in the Chinese world.