In Sol y dar y dad (1974/2016), Chilean artist and poet Cecilia Vicuña plays on the Spanish words solidaridad (solidarity), sol (sun) and dar (to give). Through this play of words, Vicuña hints at the power of words—to both cause destruction and reconciliation.

Born and raised in Santiago, Chile, she was exiled in the early 1970s after the violent military coup against President Salvador Allende. Her work is therefore characterised by a sense of impermanence and a desire to preserve and pay tribute to Chile’s indigenous history and culture.

Throughout her prolific career of five decades, she has integrated poetry, performance and textile craft in response to the world’s pressing problems such as ecological destruction, human rights violation and cultural homogenisation. She has recently held solo exhibitions at Tate Modern, London (2022) and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2022). The artist also showcased her work at the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale.

This painting is part of an ongoing series of portraits that Xie has been working on for the past ten years. The artist is known for illustrating the subject’s personality through his paintings—much like what is seen in traditional portraiture.

Xie changes his portrait style based on the subject, and in doing so he challenges tradition and the established rules of art education. His interest in psychology motivates him to inquire beyond what meets the eye. His solo exhibitions have been held in many places internationally, including at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2018). In 2023, he was nominated for the Sigg Prize.

Noise Blanket No. 8 is part of an ongoing series of functional sound-blankets that the artist has created for home installation. Literally sculpting the aural environment around them, sound blankets can create the impression that certain desirable types of noises (such as the human voice) are louder or clearer. Through their work, Gork seeks to cautiously affirm the possibility of real agency in a highly controlled and administered world. They do this through highlighting the architectural features which relate to noise management such as building insulation and acoustic panelling, and refashioning industrial textiles in hand-quilted pigmented silicone.  

Gork’s work is being shown at the 13th Taipei Biennial—which is opening this month. In 2024, they will present a solo exhibition at the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University.

This work is part of a series in which Tiffany Chung enquires into the Neolithic circular earthworks (CEW, as referenced in the title) that were found in the Vietnam-Cambodia border. The same area was also home to rubber plantations built by French colonists in the 19th century, and was subsequently a battle site in the 1972 Easter Offensive during the American-Vietnam War. Through this series, Chung depicts the region’s transformation through time, contemplating on the entanglements of nature, culture, war and state-making. Chung is known for her research-based hand-drawn and embroidered cartographic works, multimedia installations and performances that examine conflict, migration, urban transformation, and geopolitical and environmental traumas.

Her work is included in the M+ collection, as well as several other international public collections. Additionally, the artist co-founded Sàn Art, an independent artist space, in Ho Chi Minh City.

In 1980, Wang Gongyi gained national recognition in China after being awarded first prize in the National Youth Fine Art Exhibition for her powerful suite of seven woodcuts depicting the Chinese revolutionary martyr Qiu Jin.

In 2005, Wang had a revelation while experimenting with the colour Windsor Blue. The artist found that the qualities of the unique British manufactured watercolour came out unexpectedly well on Xuan paper. The colour allowed for subtle and delicate shapes to form organically on paper, almost mimicking traces of landscapes, skies, water and air, which led to the artist creating her trademark abstract aesthetic. Wang has had solo exhibitions at the Portland Art Museum (2018) and Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou (2013).

As a second-generation immigrant from China, Michael Ho explores the themes of Chinese diaspora, cultural mismatches and cultural rediscoveries in his paintings. He uses a specific technique, painting from back to front and superimposing diluted images with resolved brush strokes to create a unique, signature aesthetic. By using clashing Asian and Western traditions, Ho engages with orientalist imagery and tropes ranging from the playful to political and erotic to domestic; often casting a critical eye on his subjects.

His films have been screened at London’s Piccadilly Circus and Institute of Contemporary Arts and at Nottingham Contemporary. Ho’s works are in the collections of Asymmetry Art Foundation, London; Domus Collection, New York; Labora Collection, Dallas; Tanoto Family Collection, Singapore; and X Museum, Beijing.

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