A Longstanding Commitment to Presenting Contemporary Chinese Art.

The Museum of Art brings a world of ideas to Bates, Lewiston-Auburn and Maine with significant exhibitions of artists from across the country and globe. One particular area the MoA has distinguished itself is through exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art. With China’s global economic and cultural importance so large today, it is worth remembering that the first major presentation of contemporary Chinese art outside China was in the 1993 exhibition China’s New Art, Post 1989, which was seen by American audiences when it travelled throughout the US through 1997. The first exhibitions organized by US institutions and presented to American audiences were Inside Out: New Chinese Art at the Asia Society, P.S.1 and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Transience: Chinese Experimental Art at the End of the Twentieth Century at the University of Chicago in 1999.  Also in 1999, the Bates College Museum of Art presented Xu Bing: Calligraphy for the People.

Since that time, the MoA has presented Wenda Gu: From Middle Kingdom to Biological Millennium (2004), Documenting China: Photography and Social Change (2004), Stairway to Heaven: From Chinese Streets to Monuments and Skyscrapers (2008), and Xiaoze Xie: Amplified Moments (1993-2008) (2012). Due to gifts and selected purchases, the MoA represents a growing collection of contemporary Chinese artists including Jiang Jian, Liu Xiaodi, Lu Yuanmin, Luo Yongjin, Xiaoze Xie, Zhang Dali, Zhang Xinmin, Zhou Hai, and Zhou Min.

The Museum of Art is pleased to be a leader in presenting significant exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art, and to be recognized as the institution known for introducing important Chinese artists to Maine and Northern New England.