Explore China’s past at the National Gallery Victoria in Melbourne

Exploring the largest neighbour of Australia is now a lost easier with the latest exhibition at the NGV in Melbourne. The new exhibit named China – The past is present highlights the influence of traditional cultural and artistic practices in contemporary Chinese culture and is open this October from the 15th to 20 February 2023. The exhibition features more than 120 works drawn primarily from the NGV’s historical and contemporary collection of Chinese art and design, which, combined, span over three millennia and an array of art forms – including painting, calligraphy, ceramics, metal works, lacquer ware, textiles, furniture, video, posters, photography and mixed media.   Offering a new interpretation of the NGV’s expansive collection of Chinese art and design, the exhibition features never-before-displayed and recent acquisitions, including a photographic sequence by Sydney-based Xiao Lu, who is widely considered to be China’s first feminist performance artist and one of the best-known artists from China’s Avant Garde art movement of the late 1980s. In the photographs, the artist references traditional Chinese spontaneous calligraphic expression by tipping calligraphy ink over her body.  Tickets are free. For more head to the NGV website