Art exhibit celebrates Lunar New Year

Art works by Chinese artists who live in New York debuted on Monday at the New York Institute of Art and Design, as part of the Big Apple's Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations.

"This is called 'Life in Full Bloom'. I got the idea from New York's High Line; all the flowers and plants in this work are from the High Line," said Song Xin, a Beijing-born artist who's featured in the exhibition Blurred Boundaries: Recent Works by Chinese Artists in New York.

"And I've loved paper cutting since I was 18 and published my first paper-cut book," Song added.

Her work — a modern paper-cut of various birds, flowers and plants borrowing images from contemporary magazines — reflects her longtime residence in New York and her passion for Chinese folk paper technique.

"This is our second year doing an exhibition like this," said David Sprouts, president of the New York School of Interior Design (NYSID). "So, it's very exciting for me, around this time of the year, to have an exhibition that can inspire our students, because the gallery space we use as a teaching tool."

"Art is inspiring. Art is a reflection of who we are as a people in our culture," said Sprouts.

"Art fosters dialogue between China and the United States," Sprouts added. "Chinese Americans living in New York City blur the boundaries between the East and West, and make people think what that means. I think that's important for our students."

Sprouts said there are about 25 percent of NYSID's students are international, and many of them are from China, so the exhibition is especially inspiring to them.

The event, co-hosted by NYSID and China's Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) features about 20 works created by local artists originally from China, including Zhang Hongtu, Shen Chen, and Cui Fei, all known for their achievements in transnational and cross-cultural themes.

"Their practice and pursuit in creating art, especially through the communication with the international world, is a very good format for exchanges between the East and the West," said Li Liyan, cultural counselor at the Chinese Consulate General in New York. "We hope these art works will promote understanding between China and the US people."

"This exhibition is part of the 2018 Happy Chinese New Year: Fantastic Art China event," said Yu Ding, chief curator of Fantastic Art China and dean of arts administration and education at CAFA. "It's the fourth year that we are co-hosting this event, and our original intention was to let Chinese art enter mainstream America and make more people understand Chinese art and culture by taking advantage of the Chinese New Year celebrations."