Talk: Shengtian Zheng In Conversation with Keith Wallace 

Modernism in China’s Socialist Period: Art Interactions with Mexico and the Eastern Bloc

Join Shengtian Zheng, renowned scholar, curator and former Adjunct Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Institute of Asian Art (now the Centre for Global Asias), and Keith Wallace, curator and Editor-in-Chief of Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, for a compelling conversation about art, modernism and foreign exchange during China’s socialist period. Their discussion will be followed by a book signing and reception. 

Drawing from Zheng’s first-hand experience as a witness and participant in the development of Chinese art since the 1950s, this talk will delve into the dynamic cultural exchanges between Chinese artists and their counterparts from the Eastern Bloc and Latin America between the 1950s and 1970s. The discussion will highlight how these interactions shaped the evolution of modern and contemporary Chinese art, while also examining the complex ways in which global modernism engaged with Western artistic movements. 

Limited quantities of Zheng’s latest book Sino-Mexican Art and Cultural Exchanges in the Twentieth Century (2024) will be available for purchase from the Gallery Store. 

This talk is free for Experience Members and above and ticketed at the reduced price of $5 for Ideas Members and $10 for Access Pass Holders. For non-members, the talk will be $10 in addition to the cost of Gallery admission.  

REGISTER NOW

Doors will open at 1:30 PM and the talk will begin at 2 PM.

If cost is a barrier to you, please reach out to learn@vanartgallery.bc.ca. 

If you have any access requests for this event, please email learn@vanartgallery.bc.ca or call 604 662 4700. 

This talk is presented in partnership with Simon Fraser University’s David Lam Centre and is an initiative of Vancouver Art Gallery’s Centre for Global Asias.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Zheng Shengtian is an artist, scholar and curator based in Vancouver. He is the Managing Editor of Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, a Research Fellow at Simon Fraser University and a Trustee of Asia Art Archive in America. He was a Professor and Department Chair at China Academy of Art and a Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota and the San Diego State University. He was the co-founder of the Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, a Trustee and the formal Adjunct Director of the Institute of Asian Art, Vancouver Art Gallery. He has organized and curated numerous exhibitions including Jiangnan—Modern and Contemporary Chinese Art Exhibitions, Shanghai Modern, 2004 Shanghai Biennale, Art and China’s Revolution and Winds from Fusang: Mexico and China in 20th Century. He was the senior curator for Asia of Vancouver Biennale and won the Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a frequent contributor to periodicals and catalogues. Four volumes of his writing on art and culture were published by China Academy of Art Press in 2013. His latest publications include Sino-Mexican Art and Cultural Exchanges in the Twentieth Century and Art and Modernism in Socialist China (co-editor). His artwork has been shown in China, the United States of America, Canada and Russia. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2013.

Keith Wallace has been a curator of contemporary art since 1979, and has worked both independently and in various visual arts institutions. From 1991 to 2001 he was Curator, then Director/Curator of the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, where he developed a program of regional, national and international exhibitions. He was Associate Director/Curator at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia from 2005 to 2008 and from 2012 to 2015. From 2004 to 2020, Wallace was Editor-in-Chief of Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, published by ARTCO, Taipei. He resumed his editorial involvement in 2023.