Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibit To Celebrate Qatar-China 2016 Year of Culture

On the occasion of the Qatar-China 2016 Year of Culture, a special exhibition is taking place at Qatar Museum’s Al Riwaq gallery near the Museum of Islamic Art from the 14^th of March until the 16^th of July.

The collection is curated by the internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang based in New York and which already displayed a solo exhibition in 2011 at the Arab Museum of Modern Art known locally as Mathaf.

Entitled ‘What about the Art? Contemporary Art from China’, the exhibition will feature in addition to paintings, sculptures, installations, videos, performances and interactive video game designs.

It is one of the major events organized to mark the Qatar-China 2016 Year of Culture, which kicked off at Katara Cultural Village in January with a wide range of cultural and entertainment activities and will continue throughout the year.

The collection features 15 contemporary Chinese artists and collectives working in a variety fields, and their unique artworks will be on display in individual galleries, to further highlight in a unique way the methodology and the creative style of each artist.

Born in 1957 in Quanzhou, China, the curator of this collection Cai Guo-Qiang was trained in stage design at the Shanghai Theater Academy, although he later worked on multiple mediums within art like drawing, performance art, installation and video.  In 2008, he was Director of Visual and Special Effects for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Later on in 2010, the artist created Odyssey for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. It is one of his largest gunpowder drawings and is part of the museum‘s ongoing Portal Project.