See "CHINA: Lost/Found" at Gardiner Gallery

Friday, August 16, 2013

 

Digital prints on exhibit at Gardiner Gallery

“CHINA: Lost/Found, Photography by Ka Chuen Yeung” is the featured exhibit now through September 27 at the Gardiner Gallery on the first floor of the Bartlett Center at Knoblock Street and Morrill Avenue on the Oklahoma State University campus. The inaugural exhibit for the 2013-14 academic year uses digital photography to contrast the battle between China’s modernization and the traditional past. The public will also be offered a series of free events, including an artist lecture, gallery talk, film series and artist workshop.

CHINA: Lost/Found, Photography by Ka Chuen Yeung, showcases thirty-eight color and monochromatic digital prints, that contrast the artist’s vision of a lost and impermanent China in the late 1990s with a newly found perspective, captured through the faces of China’s citizens today. Black and white images of China, taken in 1996-97, document the landscape, culture and lifestyles lost to the construction of Three Gorges Dam and China’s quest for prosperity.

Sixteen years later, Yeung returned with the purpose of photographing the root of China’s new transformation and focusing on the individual. These color images epitomize a widespread urbanization in China and a discernible battle between modernization and the traditional past.

As Yeung portrays China, the world’s most populous country in transformation, he narrows his view to a descriptive, personal selection of people. They include displaced city dwellers, rural laborers seeking employment, nouveau riche pursuing luxuries—all reflect the extensive social changes recently found by Yeung through his lens.

Born in Hong Kong, Ka Chuen Yeung is an award-wining photographer based in Dallas. He works in the area of advertising and also within the realm of personal or fine art photography. “I do not really draw a distinction,” said Mr. Yeung “I am first, and foremost a photographer and the process, which I decide on what lens, camera, format, subject, concept, is addressed the same whether for an exhibition or for an advertising campaign.”

On Thursday, Aug. 29, the Gardiner Gallery will host an opening reception from 5 - 6 p.m., followed by an artist talk from 6 -7 p.m. A free public Gallery Talk will be offered on Thursday, Sept. 12, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.. CHINA: Lost/Found is organized by the Gardiner Gallery.

Digital Photography Workshop:

In conjunction with this exhibition, the Gardiner Gallery is collaborating with Stillwater Multi Arts Center to organize a digital photography workshop. Join Mr. Ka Chuen Yeung on Friday, August 30 at the Center for a two-session workshop (session I: 10 am—12 pm/ session II: 1 pm—2:30 pm) and learn how to obtain the most consistent results in your digital photography. There will be ample opportunity for you to discuss creative and technical aspects of digital photography with the artist.

The workshop is funded by the Oklahoma Arts Council and free to the public. For required RSVP, call 405-744-2783 or email Jordan.Griffis@okstate.edu

Film Series:

While the exhibition is on view in the Gardiner Gallery, three films, “Beijing Bicycle,” “Last Train Home,” and “Still Life,” will be screened. Although in different genres, the films will together help the public understand the tension in an increasingly polarized Chinese society, when China discards its past as it hurtles towards modernity and global economic dominance. The screening will start at 7 p.m. on Sept. 5, and continue on Sept. 12 and Sept. 19. All screenings will be in Classroom Building 101. This Films Series is free and open to the public.

About the Gardiner Gallery

 First opened in 1965, the Gardiner Gallery has become the central place for Oklahoma State University students and faculty to experience the visual arts. It offers a range of exhibitions that stimulate active learning, research and teaching about art. The Gardiner Art Gallery is managed in close collaboration with the Department of Art. Each academic year, we organize a variety of programs, including artist talks, workshops and lectures by art historians and critics. All exhibitions and programs are offered free of charge to the community, designed for the education and enjoyment of all. The gallery serves as a gateway to the University experience and the vibrant cultural landscape of central Oklahoma.