Osage Art Foundation & City University of Hong Kong

are pleased to announce:

MARKET FORCES

Exhibition | ERASURE: FROM CONCEPTUALISM TO ABSTRACTION Curated by Charles Merewether

Symposium | ART AND VALUES Moderated by David Elliott

Co-presented by Osage Art Foundation & City University of Hong Kong

Market Forces is an annual event that is part of Osage’s non-profit initiative. The basis of the event is to question ‘value’: the 2012 ‘Market Forces, Whither Contemporary Art?’ asked whether we could find new paradigms for intellectual and artistic inquiry and debate, and for 2013, ‘Market Forces: The Friction of Opposites’ emphasized value in terms of moral or societal notions. For 2014, we have invited veteran curator Charles Merewether to curate the third ‘Market Forces; Erasure: From Conceptualism to Abstraction’ will be spread over two locations including Osage Hong Kong and City University. The exhibition will also be accompanied by a symposium moderated by David Elliot, entitled ‘Art and Values’ where invited speakers Jens Hoffmann, Biljana Ciric, Charles Merewether, Kurt Chan and Enin Supriyanto will examine the increasingly over-determined economic interpretation of the value of art. Both events are co-presented by City University of Hong Kong as part of the university’s 30th anniversary celebratory events.

Exhibition | Erasure: From Conceptualism to Abstraction Curated by Charles Merewether

The basis of the exhibition is to question ‘value’ as assigned or measured by the global art markets; more specifically, it aims to critically engage with the increasingly pervasive conflation of aesthetic value with market price – a phenomena which has been exacerbated by the booming contemporary market’s general tendency to favour particular media, styles and ‘brands’. Art in this case is reduced to a vehicle for representation rather than a basis for exploring ideas and issues or a way of engaging with the world through the senses; in other words, subject matter takes precedence over the concept and materiality of works. The exhibition will feature artists from Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand. The creation of object based and conceptual work rooted in this region has a history that is often overlooked, and such work remains, to a certain extent, unexplored. The exhibitions will thus tease out the intrinsic aesthetic value and connections between works and practices in the region.

For docent-guided visits, please contact Ms Grace Lam at gracelam@osagegallery.com or (852) 2389 8332.

Symposium | Art and Values Moderated by David Elliott

Date Saturday, 17 May 2014
Time 2 – 6 pm
Venue Wong Cheung Lo Hui Yuet Hall, 5/F, Academic Three (AC3) Building,

City University of Hong Kong

Starting from the general question of aesthetic values versus market price, speakers will each respond by focusing on the different conditions for art production within different localities, as well as the global art market, with a particular emphasis on the situation in Hong Kong and Asia. Drawing from similar issues of contention as the exhibition, the symposium will draw connections between different regions and their value systems, critically examining the mark et driven interpretations of works, and issues of representation versus intrinsic aesthetic values.

The symposium is open to the public. Simultaneous interpretation (English-Mandarin) will be provided. For registration, please contact Ms Grace Lam at gracelam@osagegallery.com or (852) 2389 8332.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Charles Merewether was born in Scotland and earned his Ph.D in Art History from the University of Sydney. He is an art historian and writer on modernism and contemporary art who has taught at universities in the United States, Mexico and South America, Australia and Singapore. He was Collections Curator at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles from 1994 to 2004, Artistic Director and Curator for the 2006 Sydney Biennale, Deputy Director for the Cultural District, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi from 2007 to 2008, and Director at Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore (ICAS), LASALLE College of the Arts from 2010 to 2013. Since 1991 and at the ICAS, he has curated a number of major exhibitions of major artists from across South America and Asia, including Central Asia. He has published extensively articles and books including Ai Weiwei: Under Construction (2008) and Ai Weiwei: Beijing, Venice, London, Herzog & de Meuron (2008) andAfter Memory: The Art of Milenko Prvački – 40 Years (2013).He has also co- edited After the Event: New Perspectives on Art History (2010), Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art: Experimentations in the public sphere in postwar Japan 1950-1970, (2007). He is currently Visiting Professor of the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

David Elliott is a curator and writer who has directed contemporary art museums and institutions in Oxford, Stockholm, Tokyo, Istanbul, Sydney and Kiev. A specialist in Soviet and Russian avant-garde, as well as in modern and contemporary Asian art, he has published widely in these fields as well as on many other aspects of contemporary art. He is currently Artistic Director of A Time for Dreams, the IV International Biennale of Young Art, to open in Moscow in June 2014, co-curator of PANDAMONIUM: New Media Art from Shanghai (on show in Berlin at present), and associate curator of the Hors Piste Film Festival in Tokyo. He was President of CIMAM (the International Committee of ICOM for museums of modern and contemporary art) from 1998 to 2004, and is currently President of the Board of Triangle Art Network/Gasworks in London, Chairman of MOMENTUM in Berlin, a member of the Asia Advisory Board of the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and Guest Lecturer in Curatorship at the Chinese University in Hong Kong. In 2008-10 he was Artistic Director of the 17th Biennale of Sydney and in 2011-12 directed the inaugural International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Kiev, Ukraine. He has also advised the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charitable Trust on the development of the Central Police Station heritage site into a centre for contemporary art.

ABOUT THE ORGANISERS Osage Art Foundation

Osage Art Foundation was established in 2004 with three main goals – Creative Communities, Cultural Cooperation and Creative Capacity, and has since played an active role in developing education and training of young people, broadening cultural

awareness and participation in artistic endeavours, nurturing creativity and critical thinking and fostering international cultural exchange. The Osage Art Foundation is now known and recognized by the local community and internationally as having initiated many pioneering projects.

The arts help us to understand who we are, where we come from, where we are going and what we want to be. They are an essential part of describing new information, new ideas and new values. The Osage Art Foundation aims to bring to the art world new voices, new vision, new ideas and new styles; to present art that spurs the imagination; to present work that addresses local issues, national concerns, and universal themes and work that celebrates diversity and difference. The Osage Art Foundation aims to celebrate the achievements of humanity together with its limitations and failures.

The Osage Art Foundation promotes and develops innovative practice in curatorship and research, knowledge building and in teaching and learning.

The Osage Art Foundation raises funds and supports a range of programmes that help young people come to a better understanding and appreciation of art and help improve relations between people of different cultures.

Osage Art Foundation is also committed to fostering cultural cooperation, improving understanding between people of different cultures and to developing creative capacity in every country that we work in. International cultural exchange programs facilitate deeper and better understanding between people of different cultures. We aim to help break down barriers between cultures while maintaining and preserving the things that make them distinctively different.

The current focus of the Osage Art Foundation is on developing deeper discourse in and around the arts and in the wider community. We believe that research, analysis, examination and promulgation of issues pertaining to society, contemporary culture and value by artists, writers, critic, curators and commentators will build better understandings of regional perspectives throughout Asia and beyond.

In May 2013 The Osage Art Foundation was honoured at the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards with an Award for Arts Sponsorship.

For more information, please visit the website www.oaf.cc.

School Of Creative Media, City University Of Hong Kong

The region’s first such institution, the School of Creative Media was founded to nurture a new generation of interdisciplinary artists and creative media professionals, and to develop new ideas and technologies for the creative industries in Hong Kong, mainland China, and abroad. Link: www.cityu.edu.hk/scm