Gao Yuan – 高媛
curated by: Sara Bortoletto
6 Feb – 6 Mar 2015, 6:30 p.m.
Opening: Friday, March 6, 2015, 6:30 p.m.
Fondazione Studio Marangoni
Via San Zanobi, 19 r, Florence, Italy
Gao Yuan – 高媛
From Friday, February 6th till Friday, March 6th, 2015, Studio Marangoni Foundation in Florence will propose “Gao Yuan”. The show, curated by Sara Bortoletto, presents two series of works, in which some iconographies of the Renaissance become an innovative way to portray contemporary China.
In “12 moons”, Gao Yuan realizes a new compositive structure inspired by The Madonna with a Child of various famous Italian painters. In her photographies, the impressive care of the use of the light and the colors prefectly reproduce the Florentine Aestethic taste of the Renaissance. Unlike the Christian iconographical vision of Maria – with its moral rectitude and castity; in Gao Yuan, young mothers are depitched as brave and indipendent women with a deep willingness in their eyes. Indeed, their expressions lift Chinese women conditions up to a new dimension. Lastly, with these new Virgins, Gao Yuan is harshly criticizing the consequences of the furious Chinese economic developments.
In “A woman with…”, her women are like contemporary Venuses. Here too, it is perfectly clear where the inspiration is taken from: Mannerism. Naked and seductive, these Venuses lay down on precious silk. Their skins are perfectly white and the wise use of the chiaroscuro give to their colors a bright light. In the background, Chinese contemporary desolated lands or destroyed cities.
Looking at the art of Gao Yuan, Studio Marangoni Foundation is very proud to show her works in Florence, a city where it is still possible to feel the splendour of Lorenzo De’Medici’s Court. We would like to thank the Taiwan Ministry of Culture and the Taiwan Affairs Department for their precious support on the realization of this exhibition.
Gao Yuan is a fine art photographer from Taiwan who explores cultural identity and the multi-layered arts of a society using symbols and signs from ancient paintings, graffiti art, and even tattoos. She studied photography in Tokyo at the Japan Nihon academy of fine art. She then attended The New York Film Academy to sharpen her skills in video arts. Currently, she is living and working both in Beijing and New York. Cultivated by her international background in Taiwan, Japan, China, and the U.S., Gao Yuan’s work has been exhibited widely in Europe, Taiwan, China, and the United States. Her photography was selected at Hong Kong Sotheby’s 2012 auction, and won the Terna contemporary art Prize of 2009 in Italy, was included in the collection of the Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkia in Lisbon, Portugal, and Kaohsiung Museum of fine arts in Taiwan.
