[press release]
The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum is an engaged public institution that reflects through art the longstanding global focus of Michigan State University. The Broad MSU’s newest exhibition, curated by Caitlín Doherty, is the first solo exhibition in the USA by the Chinese artist Yan Xing (*1986 in Chongqing, China).
Yan Xing is part of a young generation of Chinese artists who were born after the Cultural Revolution, and with therefore no direct connection of the social, political, and cultural issues that informed the earlier generation. This exhibition brings together important works from throughout Yan Xing’s career, as well as a newly created site-specific work based on the Broad MSU’s historic art collection. At times theatrical and performative, Yan Xing explores the complex construction and deconstruction of artworks, pointing to his ongoing fascination with art history, literature, politics, and philosophy. Including works in a variety of media from video to installation, his work confronts art history and its dominant theories, questioning established canons and taxonomies, and encouraging multiple readings and layers of understanding. In this way, he positions his own work within an independent context–paradoxically as dependent upon art history as it is disconnected from it–and encourages the viewer to understand contemporary art within a broader art historical narrative. At the same time he questions the place of art within contemporary culture, as well as his own understanding of what art might be.
Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University
June 4 – October 16, 2016
Reception
Friday, June 3, 5–8pm
Opening hours
Monday: closed
Tuesday–Thursday: 10am–5pm
Friday: 12–9pm
Saturday–Sunday: 10am–5pm
Admission
free
For further information visit
Broad Art Museum
