Stairs leading to a large photograph under a brick arch.

Luke Ching, Wall: Room 118, Titanic Hotel, Stanley Dock, Regent Road, Liverpool, 2017. PRESENCE exhibition installation shot by Pete Carr.

PRESENCE: A Window into Chinese Contemporary Art

Free Curator Tours:
Exhibition tours led by PRESENCE curators Stephanie Fletcher and Lindsay Taylor.
Friday 13 April
Wednesday 25 April
Thursday 17 May
Thursday 31 May
All tours will start at 2pm on the stated dates.
Venue: 
The vaults, St. George’s Hall, entrance via the Heritage Centre on St. John’s Lane, Liverpool

Exhibition details

Artists: aaajiao, Li Binyuan, Suki Chan, Chou Yu-Cheng, Luke Ching, Cao Fei, Han Feng, Chen Hangfeng, Kong Chun Hei, Wang Ningde, susan pui san lok, Ma Qiusha, Tian Taiquan, Wu Chi-Tsung, Annie Lai Kuen Wan, Yan Xing, Lu Xinjian, Sun Xun, Chen Ching-Yuan

Our complete New Collection of Chinese Contemporary Art is exhibiting in the vaults of St George’s Hall, Liverpool as part of the citywide China Dream season. PRESENCE: A Window into Chinese Contemporary Art offers a contemporary view of Chinese culture to complement China’s First Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors, at the World Museum, Liverpool.

PRESENCE features work by 19 artists giving a unique window into 21st century artistic practice across China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the diaspora. The artists included cover a range of themes including consumerism, technology, connectivity and the individual’s place in the world today.The sculptures, paintings, installations, videos and photographs are installed throughout the vaults in St George’s Hall, including some intriguing spaces not normally open to the public.

The New Collection of Chinese Contemporary Art has been developed largely in partnership with the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art in Manchester, but also with Liverpool’s Open Eye Gallery.

As we are installing the exhibition we are seeing the individual works in a new light, and can fully appreciate the breadth and importance of our evolving collection. What links these two exhibitions is the desire to tell human stories and to reflect on different periods of history. If China’s First Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors Exhibition presents the culture from 2000 years ago, PRESENCE looks to the future and tells a story of the ‘now’.  University of Salford  Art Collection Curator, Lindsay Taylor

Chinese contemporary art has become an indispensable component of global art. By promoting, showing, researching, disseminating and collecting, the University of Salford and CFCCA play an important role in the interaction and communication between Chinese and British contemporary art. I look forward to showing my work to audiences in Liverpool.  Artist Cao Fei. Haze and Fog and La Town by Cao Fei will screen in the PRESENCE exhibition.

PRESENCE: A Window into Chinese Contemporary Art exhibition catalogue. 

PRESENCE: A Window into Contemporary Chinese Art, Family Trail Activity

Exhibition dates: Friday 9 February – Sunday 3 June 2018. Closed Easter weekend (Friday 30 March – Sunday 1 April).
Additional opening: Tuesday 3 April, 10am – 5pm.
Exhibition opening hours: Wednesday – Sunday 10am – 5pm
Venue: The vaults, St. George’s Hall, entrance via the Heritage Centre on St. John’s Lane, Liverpool
Admission: Free