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Two exhibitions for February and March, at the Welcome Swallow Galleries!
~ A Saturday Seminar ~
Jing Liu puts Chinese art under the microscope
Saturday afternoon 9th March 2024, gallery artist, Jing Liu, a major contributor to the exhibition, A Journey With Chinese Art, gave a captivating and highly interactive one and a half hour seminar on her personal journey with her forebears. She considers these artists, from a thousand years ago to be part of her own journey.
Jing shared a breath-taking array of artistic knowledge and practice with her willing audience. The seminar focused on the Dynastic origins of Chinese art periods, including the birth of calligraphy and the claborate and expressive styles of painting. The special properties of rice paper and silk were shared alongside the use of brushes and how when painting, she used two brushes at the same time. She showed the various stages that some of the exhibition paintings had progressed through. The meticulous processes involved were underscored when she shared her personal opinion that, "The fun part for me is that there is no room for error".
Following the seminar the audience showed their appreciation of the work that Jing had done to bring her paintings to life. with prolonged, richly deserved applause.
The City Gallery at Ward St.
Gallery artist, Sylvia Sinel is holding a solo exhibition in the city gallery, entitled, A Devotion to Form. The exhibition lasts for the duration of The Boon Sculpture Trail here in Hamilton, 3rd Feb to 31st March. On Saturday 10th February she held an informal talk with interested art lovers of sculpture while sharing her personal journey towards this inspirational exhibition.
Sylvia presented a retrospective exhibition with works made over the past 10 years whilst living in New Zealand. She also explained the inspiration behind the projects and art that were made in her native Sweden.
Moreover, during these two months, Sylvia will use the Gallery as a studio, utilizing the time to create a new body of work. This will occur alongside workshops that will examine the ideas and inspiration behind some selected pieces. For details of workshop dates and times, click on the home tab on the menu above followed by Hamilton CBD
Grey St, Gallery Hamilton East
A Journey with Chinese Art launched in temperatures that soared beyond 30c making it quite a challenge to stay cool. With a large audience that increased in numbers through the early evening, competition for places under the air conditioning units, at times, became pretty intense. Buying was hot too with several sales that included two of Yong Ming Liu's incredible scrolls.
Gallery curator Clive Gilson began proceedings by emphasising the importance of Chinese calligraphy as part of the exhibition's intent to employ art as a means to understand and appreciate Chinese philosophy and culture. In this regard he identified the calligraphy of the Heart Sutra as an important illustration. Dallas Fisher, representing the gallery Patron, The Montana Catering Group identified the important work carried out by the gallery locating his commentary within his own life's art journey.
Nancy Caiger invited the audience to discover and enjoy the delights of the recently opened Boon Sculpture Trail that also passes by Sylvia Sinel's solo exhibition A Devotion to Form, at Welcome Swallow City Gallery
Finally, gallery artist Jing Liu introduced her exhibition work explaining the cultural and artistic significance of several of her compositions.
For artists wishing to know more about showing work with Welcome Swallow Galleries, download the pdf below
Catalogues for all
previous exhibitions
Gallery coverage in the media
A Journey With Chinese Art
The Audi Five Cities Showcase
Drawn From Life
Celebration exhibition
Threads of Life exhibition
The Waikato Watercolourists exhibition
Chinese Art: Inheritance & Innovation exhibition
The Waikato Watercolourists II exhibition
The Art of Performance: Sport & Hollywood exhibition