Exhibitions
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(80%)
Rainbow Chan Notations: Red Scale
"Notations: Red Scale" presents a captivating visual and conceptual journey by artist Rainbow 陳雋然, exploring the interplay of colour, movement, and notation. The exhibition invites viewers to engage with the rhythm and texture of visual language, evoking a sense of fluidity and transformation. This showcase is a celebration of artistic nuance and sensory experience, offering a unique perspective on the intersection of sound and form.
[NEW] Sandy Edwards: A Backward Glance at Australian Feminism
IAC is honoured to present this very compelling exhibition showcasing selected photographic works by Sandy Edwards, a key figure in Australian photography. Emerging in the 1970s and 1980s, Sandy Edwards was instrumental in the feminist photography movement, using her documentary style to challenge traditional narratives, highlight issues of gender and identity, and question societal norms. Her work not only documents social conditions but also serves as a catalyst for dialogue and change, reflecting a profound commitment to feminist ideals. This exhibition features a selection of Sandy Edwards’ works from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, serving as a snapshot of Australian feminism.
"Connecting and Connections", the first art exhibition of 2025, brings together five distinguished artists of diverse backgrounds who through their highly personalised and distinctive artistic creations, individually and collectively, explore the complexities—often layered and contradictory—of cultural heritage, identity, traditions, mythologies, art history and alternative perspectives. Their inspiring artworks invite viewers to engage with the myriad experiences that shape our world, expanding the mind's eye.
Bitten Peach 分桃 is a solo show of high-profile multidisciplinary visual artist Owen Leong, known for his artistic exploration of queer world-making and inspired by a queer reading of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio,《聊齋志異》, a collection of classical Chinese stories by Qing dynasty writer Pu Songling (1640 – 1715). The collection conjures up a world in which nothing is as it seems, stretching the boundaries between the supernatural and everyday reality, using physical and psychological detail to make the move between these realms seem natural. By fusing historical materials with contemporary forms, the artist has created an exquisite body of work that “navigates the delicate interplay between past and present, desire and fantasy, self and world” and “transforms classical literature into a contemporary celebration of queer joy, power and agency”.
Portraits of Women: Amani Haydar
This uniquely empowering exhibition titled Portraits of Women, featuring the Western Sydney-based artist Amani Haydar who is also an award-winning writer, advocate for women’s health and safety and a former lawyer. Amani was born and grew up in Western Sydney of Lebanese heritage. Her parents migrated from Lebanon. In 2015 her father killed her mother as a result of brutal domestic violence, when Amani was five months pregnant with her first child and working as a lawyer. Her self-portrait holding her mum who is holding grandma who was killed in Lebanon won the Archibald finalist in 2018. In 2021 she published a memoir "Mother Wound" which won many awards including Victoria Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. This exhibition showcases Amani’s portraits of women, telling stories of women – all women, inspiring resilience, strength, hope and beauty, under and despite devastating traumas. She has developed a very distinctive artistic style and her artworks are strikingly beautiful to watch.
Hidden Treasures Virtual Gallery
Hidden Treasures is an exhibition of treasured works of contemporary Chinese art that are not on public view but “hidden” in the homes of collectors. Some of the artworks have not been seen for almost forty years. Between the beginning and the end of this exhibition span 39 years, an exhilarating, dynamic period in Chinese art history that mirrors the ebbs and flows of massive societal changes and likewise the paths of the artists themselves. The stories behind the artworks are fascinating, revealing hidden meanings in the hidden treasures and connecting the artwork to a certain time and place. Enjoy discovering this collection of privately collected Chinese contemporary artworks through the eyes of the collectors!
History Reimagined: Shen Jiawei and NC Qin
This exhibition brings together two outstanding artists of different backgrounds, using different mediums, to show their fascinating and intriguing representations and explorations of history in their artistic creations. NC Qin, a young and successful artist specialising in glass sculpture and conceptual art, is first-generation Australian-born Chinese. Her artistic pursuit is intertwined with her identity formation. Embracing her Chinese heritage, she also interrogates and explores the hidden burden of cultural heritage within the Asian diaspora. Shen Jiawei, one of Australia’s best known master portraitists, but his lifelong interest and artistic pursuit are history painting, particularly large-scale history paintings, to capture history’s depth and complexity. This exhibition shows for the first time ever a print of Shen’s masterpiece, "The Tower of Babel" (2023), an epic artwork 20 years in the making that recreates an alternative art history of the 20th century by tracing the biggest movement of all: the International Communist Movement.
Individual and Universal: the World We Share
This exciting new exhibition features Ning Chen, Pamela See and Nelson Nghe, three distinctive Asian Australian artists of different styles, working in different mediums. What connects them is that they all draw on their cultural history and heritage in pursuit of their social, cultural and artistic identities as a migrant Australian and first-generation Australians of migrant parents. Their lived experiences have enabled them to develop their individual voices and styles, whilst exploring the interconnected aspects of the world we live in.
Warren Duncan Exhibition: Australians in 1970’s China
The Warren Duncan Exhibition is to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Gough Whitlam’s visit to China as the Prime Minister of Australia. The photographic works selected for the exhibition captured incredible and rare historic moments, revealing the interactions between Australians and Chinese, including state leaders, diplomats, high ranking officials and ordinary people, and reflecting how China looked to arriving Australians. These photographs humanise an exceptional time in history, making this an exhibition not to be missed.
The Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture (IAC) at Western Sydney University is proud to present this new exhibition featuring two Australian artists of Chinese heritage, Dongwang Fan and Susan Chen. Every artist has a different relationship with traditions and takes a different approach to them. Artists of migrant backgrounds are bound to take a conscious path towards their cultural heritage, which in turn has a fundamental impact on their artistic creation. The artists in this exhibition are from different generations and had different childhood experiences. But their unique and surprising reconfiguration and transformation of traditions in their artworks both contrast and connect them in their creative depiction of tradition and contemporaneity.
The Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture (IAC) at Western Sydney University is thrilled to present an extraordinary new exhibition titled "Geng Xue Solo Exhibition 2." This highly anticipated exhibition showcases the remarkable artistic talent of Geng Xue, whose innovative approach of using clay sculpture to create animation made a profound impact on the international art scene almost a decade ago.
The Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture (IAC) at Western Sydney University is honoured and thrilled to present this very special exhibition "Red Heart of Australia" from the National Museum of Australia at our art space on Parramatta South campus as the first venue of a national tour from 1 June to 28 July 2023. This exhibition includes eight paintings, created by Aboriginal artists from across central Australia and selected from the National Museum of Australia’s collection. It had its inaugural exhibition at the National Art Museum of China from 31 July to 2 December 2021.
William Yang Exhibition: Claiming Heritage
IAC is honoured and privileged to present William Yang’s solo exhibition “Claiming Heritage”. William Yang is one of Australia’s most celebrated photographers and internationally renowned performance artists. His five decades of extraordinary works make him an iconic chronicler of our time. In the mid-eighties, William Yang began to explore his Chinese heritage which had hitherto been lost to him by his complete assimilation into the Australian way of life. His photographic themes expanded to include landscapes and the Chinese in Australia. William states, “Now I call myself mainly Australian, and claim my Chinese heritage as part of my identity. This exhibition is about my journey to make that claim.”
Wang Lan's Art: A Lyrical Language 牧歌
The exhibition reflects the creative journey of an award-winning Chinese Australian artist Wang Lan who grew up in China and later migrated to Australia. Her artistic journey is divided into three periods. The first part shows her works created in China; the second part includes the works created during 1991 to 2001, the first ten years of her moving to Australia when she was caught in the middle of juggling between two cultures; and the last part reveals her pursuit of an unified inner world of life and nature
In 2022, IAC hosted three solo exhibitions featuring award winning Chinese Australian artist Wang Lan, multimedia artist Tianli Zu and Archibald Prize finalist Dapeng Liu; one group exhibition curated by the Australian art legend Guan Wei, featuring five highly talented young artists; one online exhibition for the overwhelming well received exhibition by Zhao Dalu whose solo exhibition at IAC was cut short due to lockdown in greater Sydney. IAC was also engaged by Willoughby City Council and produced an exhibition at the Incinerator Art Space of Willoughby as part of the Chatswood Year of the Tiger Festival.
In 2021, IAC hosted “Zhao Dalu Exhibition: The Lives 众生” featuring one of the most critically acclaimed Chinese Australian artists, Zhao Dalu, and “Yang Xifa Exhibition: Universe in Coins 《幣 "見" 乾 坤》” featuring a well-established Chinese Australia artist Dr Yang Xifa. IAC also collaborated Willoughby City Council and produced an exhibition named “Precious Treasures” in celebrating 2021 Lunar New Year.
In 2020, IAC launched four audio and visual exhibitions during the Covid lockdown period. “Wild Hearts & Warm Spirits” is a curated collection of student photography under School of Humanities and Communication Arts' outbound global mobility study program. The artist Zhou Xiaoping’s solo exhibition “Zhou Xiaoping: Spiritual Bonding between Land and People” reflects the connection between people, land and spirit drawing on the artist’s personal experiences in collaborating with Aboriginal artists. “Coronavirus in Children’s Eyes” showcases 20 top artworks selected from a competition launched for artworks by school children in the theme of the global pandemic. Emerging Chinese Australian artist Heli Yang’s solo exhibition “Heli Yang Exhibition: A New Life” tells the stories of three generations in a migrant family.
In 2019, IAC hosted four exhibitions: “Guan Wei: Essence, Energy, Spirit” featuring three distinct series of work from the personal collection of well-known Chinese Australian artist Guan Wei’; “Chasing the Mountain Light” showing different mountains through the camera lens of Yan Zhang who is the Professor of Artificial Intelligence in the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics at Western Sydney University; “Adam Chang's Pandas and Treasures” featuring a collection of seven paintings by award-wining Chinese Australian artist Adam Chang; “As We Journey Through Life” showing artist Bingbing Chen’s journey of fragility, hope and optimism.
In 2019, IAC hosted two group exhibitions and two solo exhibitions. “The ‘Yunnan School’ of Artists” featuring a group of six recognized Yunnan artists gives an opportunity to understand the development of an historic and contemporary aspect of art practice in China. “‘Three Perfections’: A Mid-Autumn Chinese Australian Artists’ Exhibition” brings together eighteen artworks of five artists who represent almost five different generations in the Chinese Australian community. A solo exhibition by renowned Chinese Australian painter Jiawei Shen showing the collection of eight Archibald portrait paintings. An exhibition of ceramic sculptures by Chinese-Indonesian Australian artisit Jayanto Damanik Tan (Tan Seng Lee).
Between 2016 and 2017, IAC hosted three photographic exhibitions “Everyday Dignity 活着|尊严”, “Meticulous Detail, Gongbi 工笔” and “Between the Village and the Metropolis” delivering a unique photographic experience of China. “Warakurna: All the Stories Got into our Minds and Eyes” is a travelling exhibition of the National Museum of Australia featuring contemporary paintings from the Western Desert community of Warakurna. Western Sydney based artist Shen Wednesday takes Lao Tzu's Dao De Jing's philosophy in her exhibition “Invisible but Visible” at IAC.