Schoeni Art Gallery's Podcast

Born in 1964, Liu Ye’s distinctive artistic style embodies a deep sense of detachment and timeless freedom. Unlike many of his contemporaries, his art does not reflect on the Cultural Revolution or any kind of external flux in modern China. Instead, these works are introspective and perfectly capture the inner solitude and vulnerability of its creator in face of a fast-changing world. Today, Liu Ye is one of the most celebrated contemporary Chinese artist, whose works have consistently fetched some of the best auction results and acquired by major private collections. In this exclusive interview with Schoeni Art Gallery Director, Nicole Schoeni, Liu Ye expresses his love for Bach music and the ever-present dream, his observations on the evolving Hong Kong art scene, advices for emerging artists and how art, after all, is nothing but a delusional fraud. In celebration of our gallery's 20th anniversary we have created a podcast channel for the "In Conversation Series", which came about as we researched our gallery's history. We invited a few renowned art personalities, including art critic Karen Smith, Swiss art collector Uli Sigg, Founder of the DSL Collection Sylvian Levy, and leading artists, to talk to us about a variety of subjects related to contemporary Chinese art. You are listening to a video version of the interview, if you would like to listen to the audio podcast for this interview, please visit our podcast channel: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/schoeni-art-gallerys-podcast/id616457802. There is no video version for English audio podcasts.

This podcast is part of Schoeni Art Gallery's Conversation series, that was produced in celebration of the gallery's 20th Anniversary in November 2013. Mok Wai Hong poses through his works thoughtful questions about the undergoing transitions and changes of the society in which he lives in. He poses criticisms and provokes reflections on the ways that modern society is run, and the challenges a metropolitan is faced with to stay sober amidst a world that is becoming more and more accustomed to the hegemony of the media and the influx of excessive graphical information. For the video version of this podcast with English subtitles please click the below link:http://youtu.be/hfBgsVDLWj0

On the occasion of Schoeni Art Gallery's 20th Anniversary, the gallery director, Nicole Schoeni, and curator, Huang Du, wanted to know more information about its history and the Ashanti Restaurant which the late-founder, Manfred Schoeni had opened in the late 1990s, and so she visited Yang Shaobin at his studio in Beijing one day in Autumn 2012. Yang Shaobin had a two-man exhibition with Yue Minjun at Schoeni Art Gallery in 1994, entitled "Faces Through the Bamboo Grove." Yang Shaobin reminisced about the old days, reflected on the art scene in Beijing and Hong Kong today and talks about why he remains in Beijing. This podcast is in Chinese. If you're knowledge of the Chinese language is not good enough to understand what the artist is saying, please visit our YouTube channel where we have created the same podcast but with images and subtitles. http://www.youtube.com/user/schoeniartgalleryhk For the video version of this podcast with English subtitles please click the below link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIvpJ-PJySU&feature=youtu.be

Huang Du is an independent curator and art critic, born in 1965 in Lintong, Shanxi Province of China, who now lives and works in Beijing. His major curatorial projects include: Art Advisor to the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2012 along with Hans Ulrich Obrist; curator for the Chinese Pavilion of the 26th Sao Paulo Biennale, in 2004, as well as assistant curator for Chinese Pavilion of the 50th Venice Biennale, 2003. Given his great curatorial experience in China as well as in the west, the gallery's director was so pleased to invited him curate the gallery's 20th Anniversary exhibition, which he had entitled LATTITUDE/ATTITUDE. In this conversation series he talks about why from a curatorial point of view, one must not view art narrowly in today’s world, and can’t take the nationalistic or globalised viewpoint only. He also gives insight into the curation behind Schoeni Art Gallery's 20th Anniversary exhibition. This podcast is in Chinese. If you're knowledge of the Chinese language is not good enough to understand what the artist is saying, please visit our YouTube channel where we have created the same podcast but with images and subtitles. http://www.youtube.com/user/schoeniartgalleryhk For the video version of this podcast with English subtitles please click the below link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HimgXTt3WzA

This podcast is part of Schoeni Art Gallery's Conversation series, that was produced in celebration of the gallery's 20th Anniversary in November 2013. Having been exposed to traditional Chinese art from an early age and training in painting and calligraphy for over a decade has definitely left its mark on Yang Yonglian's artistic expressions. Nevertheless, post-1980's technological advancements crept into his process of art making; resulting in contradictory usual representations of the rapid urbanization of Chinese cities imbued with aesthetics of ancient Chinese art. Finding new ways for Chinese art to thrive and continue to flourish, Yang Yongliang uses new media and photography to render the characteristics of traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting. This podcast is in Chinese. If you're knowledge of the Chinese language is not good enough to understand what the artist is saying, please visit our YouTube channel where we have created the same podcast but with images and subtitles. http://www.youtube.com/user/schoeniartgalleryhk For Yang's video with English subtitles please click the below link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR_sr75Kfso

This podcast is part of Schoeni Art Gallery's Conversation series, that was produced in celebration of the gallery's 20th Anniversary in November 2013. Sylvan Levy is an art collector and founder of DSL collection, who embraces the discovery and promotion of Chinese contemporary arts. In November last year Sylvain Levy gave Schoeni Art Gallery some insight into his wife's and his art collection, called DSL collection and how it has developed over time. Another interesting topic he brings up is why they choose to share their collection rather than keeping the information private, and what that means. He also talks about the importance of communication and digitizing their collection so it is more accessible to the public. This podcast is in English.

This podcast is part of Schoeni Art Gallery's Conversation series, that was produced in celebration of the gallery's 20th Anniversary in November 2013. One of the most significant collectors of contemporary Chinese art, Uli Sigg talks about how he began to collect as an emphasis on the importance of documenting the biggest cultural space in the world when no one was doing so back in the late 1980s. He also talks about how his collection ended up being placed in Hong Kong, which he so generously donated to the M+ Museum, and what he thinks of the local art scene in Hong Kong.

In December last year, we caught up with Karen Smith renown curator and writer on the topic of Chinese contemporary art. She had lived in Hong Kong from March 1989 to November 1992 and has been living in China ever since. In part two of our conversation series she takes us back to the Hong Kong Art Scene in the early 1990s, and compares it with the scene today, with great hope for its future.