Matter + Spirit: A Chinese/American Exhibition

The Galleries at Messiah University are proud to present the international exhibition: Matter and Spirit, curated by Rachel Hostetter Smith. It will be on display in the Aughinbaugh and High Center Galleries from January 21st – February 21st.

About the Exhibition

What is the place of the spiritual in contemporary life, particularly in highly materialistic—and increasingly secular—cultures, like the United States and China? This is the central question of Matter + Spirit: A Chinese/American Exhibition, a collection of artworks that engage the great diversity of issues it raises and a range of perspectives on them.

It is the product of a gathering of North American art professors with their Chinese counterparts in June 2018 in China sponsored by the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity. Visiting artists’ enclaves and cultural sites in Beijing, Nanjing, and Shanghai, they considered issues of art, contemporary society, spirituality, and their role as culture makers, critics and seers. The works you see in this exhibition represent this encounter, its conversations and what was summoned by the artists’ interactions—with China, with the arts scene there, and with each other. Matter + Spirit presents a remarkable body of art that reflects on the perennial tensions between the material and the spiritual in human life and in society.

It is hardly necessary to explain the interest in doing a project in China. Chinese contemporary art has swept onto the international art scene and is, without question, a leading cultural force. As late as 1990 there were no private art galleries in Beijing. But twenty years later there were 300 galleries in the capital, energized by the social space that opened up in Chinese society between the state and the market. These forerunners focused on the effects of rapid social change and cultural globalization in China, laying the foundation for the vital and rapidly evolving cultural landscape we see today.

This project is the third of its kind; two prior projects were undertaken in Indonesia in 2008 and in South Africa in 2013. The ensuing exhibits, Charis: Boundary Crossings (2009-2013) and Between the Shadow & the Light (2014-2018) drew a total of 25,000 visitors as they traveled to more than 30 venues across North America. Given the excitement that Chinese contemporary art has stirred among Western viewers, we expect this exhibit to touch even more people.

Matter + Spirit is composed of 55 works (including some multi-piece, electronic, and serial works) by 25 Chinese and American artists in a wide range of media and styles.