I recently returned from 14 amazing days in China, where Connecting Hearts Through Art: A China-U.S. Artistic Exchange Exhibition opened on May 15.  The exhibition remains on display at the Yuan Contemporary Art Museum in Nanjing, China until June 15, 2025.

Travel Companions

I traveled to China with my colleague Professor Kenny Jones and former student Allen Smith. There, ceramicist Kiki Liu from Los Angeles, artist Zhao Jianmin from San Francisco, and artist and scholar Wang Qingxiang of New York City joined our group. Each of us had up to three works in the exhibition. Our primary hosts, Zhai You and other members of the Jiangsu Chinese Painting Society and the Yuan Contemporary Art Museum, warmly greeted us all.

Other American Artists in the Exhibition

The exhibition also included works by Bonny Leibowitz of Richardson, TX and Jingyi, a Chinese American artist from Abilene, TX. Neither artist was able to make the trip to China.

Historic Implications

This exhibition was groundbreaking. It featured 12 Chinese artists and 8 American artists exhibiting, collaborating, having meaningful dialogue, and joining forces to produce an artwork for the very first time in China. As such, it received huge print, television, and social media coverage across China, and even in nearby Japan and Taiwan. Everywhere we traveled as a part of our pre-planned agenda in China, photographers and videographers were along to document our activities to promote the exhibition and the goals of this exchange.

Cultural Exchanges

We had roundtable meetings with local officials, the leaders of art and literary organizations, teachers, administrators, and supporters of art in Nanjing, Jintan, Anqing, and Tongcheng, China, as well as the Xuan Paper Company. At each site, we collaborated with local artists to produce a work of art together, each of which remains in their various collections. We also shared fabulous meals together and engaged in friendly conversations that highlighted our affinity for one another, our shared values, and our hopes of friendly relationships between the people of our nations.

Expression of Thanks

Before providing a brief summary of our activities in China, it is important to thank the individuals whose commitment and diligent efforts made this exhibition and exchange possible.

• Dr. Berlin Fang. None of this would have happened without Dr. Fang. He facilitated and translated my correspondence with Chinese artist Sheng Dongqiao, encouraged and assisted my efforts to organize an intercultural exhibition with Chinese artists for over four years, and traveled with us to China, translating the vast majority of our conversations. 
• Madam Chen Chunmei, Minister of Culture and Tourism at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Washington, DC. Madam Chen read my correspondence with Sheng Dongqiao, thoughtfully reviewed an exhibition proposal that I developed which included works by Sheng Dongqiao, his son Sheng Yingmiao, and me, opened the door for me to collaborate with the next individual, and endorsed the exhibition in China.
• Zhai You, VP and Secretary General of the Jinagsu Chinese Painting Society. My commitment to an intercultural exhibition happened to align with a vision Mr. Zhai had already begun implementing with the artists of other countries a decade ago. He skillfully organized this exhibition and all of the events, an amazing feat that he made look easy.

The interesting backstory on how this exhibition came about is discussed in a podcast hosted by Travis Eason of Abilene.

Some of Our Site Visits

• We toured historic sites in the ancient city of Nanjing, China, including the tomb of the Hongwu Emperor, Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum.
• In Jintan, China, we visited an archeology museum featuring artistic objects dating to 6500 BCE.
• As the special guests of Ninghai High School in Nanjing, we toured a campus that is training  over a thousand students to become artists. While there, we saw an exhibition of the students’ work and visited an active drawing classroom and answered students’ questions. Later, we met in a conference room with faculty, administrators, and students for discussions about the goals of art education in our respective nations and schools.

• During a tour of the headquarters, mountain factory site, and city factory site of the Xuan Paper Company, we experienced a paper and paper-making process with a 1000-year history. We met and shared meals with the CEO, CFO, and other top administrators. During our tour, we witnessed the handmade processes of paper-making that literally gave shape to the history of Chinese painting and calligraphy. Prior to entering the plant where the paper is created, dried, cut to size, and packaged for sale, we were informed that we were the first American artists to visit the Xuan Paper Company since Robert Rauschenberg came in 1982. Then our hosts promptly took us inside to see what Rauschenberg was never permitted to see. 

• Witnessing brushes being made by hand was a highlight of our visit to the shop of sixth-generation Master brush-maker She Zhengiun.

• We participated in a walking tour of the historic village of Zha Ji, which remains much as it existed in the Qing and Ming Dynasties.
• A visit to Anqing Normal University, where we toured historic structures and a history museum, observed students training to join the opera, and met with fine art faculty to discuss differences and commonalities in our approach to educating young artists.
• The chief curator gave us a guided tour of a Confusion Temple in the city of Tongcheng, China.
• And, finally, I met the Chinese artist Sheng Dongqiao whom I began corresponding with about 4 years ago. It was during our correspondence that I proposed a joint exhibition of our work that ultimately culminated in this much grander exhibition and intercultural exchange.