Who Says You Can Never Go Back?

Last week, I documented three events in conjunction with the Coming Home art exhibition at the Linda Gallery in 798.  My friend, Catherine Croll, curated the exhibition which featured the work of 37 prominent Chinese-Australian artists, many of whom have moved back to China.  There was a BBQ dinner party on Wednesday for the artists to meet each other (some of them are classmates that had not seen one another for over ten years).  On Friday the Australian Ambassador hosted a cocktail party at his residence.  And finally on Saturday, the show opened and was followed by an auction to raise funds for those who suffered from the horrible bush fires in Australia last year.

The exhibition will run through 24 May.  If you are in Beijing, check it out.

Here's some of the highlights chronological like. Installation

BBQ Catherine with Michael Ngiam and Tess Lin (gallery managers)

The pressure of a name.  Artist and dance choreographer.

Ambassador's Party Swanky digs. Much more at ease than the USA embassy.

Ambassador Dr. Geoff Raby greets Shen Shaomin who made a documentary film titled "I am Chinese"

Catherine Croll, curator of the exposition and the youngest artist in the show, Muzi Li

Guo Jian (painter), Wang Zhiyuan (mixed media), Xiao Lu (performace artist and mixed media), not sure about the guy with the gotee, and Yang Xifa (painter)

Opening Dr. Laurens Tan (sculptor) and Tony Trimbath

Lin Chunyan in front of one of his works

Tony Scott from China Art Projects and Lindy Lee (mixed media artist)

Chen Ping (painter), Alice Dittmar (artist in residence), don't know who the three in the middle are and Deng Zhong (sculptor) is on the far right

Di Wu standing on the mandala he designed with a reporter.  The security guard behind them did not know Di Wu was the artist.

Some of the acrobats who performed liveAuction Linda Ma (owner of the Linda Gallery)

You cannot always afford what you want, even for charity

Brian Wallace (founding director of Red Gate Gallery)

Ian Tang showed up in his Lamborghini (Jackie Chan's manager)

Cheers to Kate for a job well done and to all the artists who helped raise over 500,000RMB from the charity auction.

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