Avant-Garde Chinese Design Showcased in London

This November, Themes & Variations, London’s powerhouse of Post-war and Contemporary Design, presents “Chinese Design Today.”  As the city’s first major selling exhibition of contemporary Chinese design, the show brings together works by 16 current Chinese creatives heading the post-Mao artistic revolution in the fields of furniture, textile and ceramics.

The designers were chosen from studios and artist communities in Beijing, Shanghai and Jingdezhen  (the capital of porcelain in China). T&V curator Liliane Fawcett selected the designers that were most representative of gallery’s vision for the show.

“With the fall of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, China has emerged as a major global power and with that has come a dissemination of contemporary Chinese art into the West,” explains Fawcett. This art market has proven quite successful at galleries and auctions, she continues. However no one has really yet addressed contemporary Chinese design of similar quality in a commercial context, particularly in London.

“These designers are taking the creative hardships suffered during the Cultural Revolution, along with traditional Chinese craftsmanship and materials, and upcycling . . .reinterpreting. . .or taking a very avant-garde philosophy towards design. . .to create a new movement of Chinese design, of which they are at the forefront,” says Fawcett.

The highlights of the collection include Shao Fao’s “Deconstructed” chairs, notably his “Chair King”, and Gu Yeli’s  “Antique Chair Revisited.”  Both works express the-old meets-new cultural changes facing China today. With over 30 artifacts in the collection, each piece will sell for £900 – £80,000.

The exhibition will run from November 8th through December 8th with a private preview scheduled for Wednesday, November 7th at the gallery’s Notting Hill location.