El Carme Cultural Centre Badalona exhibits Wei Xiaorong's contemporary Chinese paintings
Wei Xiaorong is one of the highest authorities in contemporary Chinese painting, heir of traditional painting, also based on the art of Chinese calligraphy. This is why the exhibition in Sala Josep Uclés in El Carme Cultural Centre in Badalona (c. Francesc Layret, 78-82) is a good opportunity to understand this symbiosis of calligraphy and painting, object of cult and veneration, and admired artistic, spiritual and heritage testimony. The exhibition, titled “Wei Xiaorong, contemporary Chinese painting”, opened on June 6, and counted on the attendance of the artist. Other attendants were the vice-rector for Arts, Culture and Heritage of the UB, Salvador García; the second deputy mayor and councillor of the Area of Services for People and Security in the Badalona City Council, Jordi Subirana; the director of the Confucius Institute Foundation in Barcelona, Javier Orduña, and the commissioner of the exhibition, Domènec Corbella.
Wei Xiaorong is one of the highest authorities in contemporary Chinese painting, heir of traditional painting, also based on the art of Chinese calligraphy. This is why the exhibition in Sala Josep Uclés in El Carme Cultural Centre in Badalona (c. Francesc Layret, 78-82) is a good opportunity to understand this symbiosis of calligraphy and painting, object of cult and veneration, and admired artistic, spiritual and heritage testimony. The exhibition, titled “Wei Xiaorong, contemporary Chinese painting”, opened on June 6, and counted on the attendance of the artist. Other attendants were the vice-rector for Arts, Culture and Heritage of the UB, Salvador García; the second deputy mayor and councillor of the Area of Services for People and Security in the Badalona City Council, Jordi Subirana; the director of the Confucius Institute Foundation in Barcelona, Javier Orduña, and the commissioner of the exhibition, Domènec Corbella.
The exhibition gathers a representative selection of the work by this Chinese painter with which we can get closer to the Eastern culture in general and in particular, the traditional and contemporary Chinese painting. Wei Xiaorong is also the director of the Department of Chinese Painting in the Chinese Arts Academy in Hangzhou, one of the big artistic training centers with the highest cultural influence in the East, where he teaches preserving the Chinese pictorial tradition, through knowledge and current research. The technical singularities of the Chinese painting calligraphy with paintbrush are systematized in the traditionally called 18 miao technique, which consists on the domination and control of the trace or lineation of the brush to get the widest variety of registers, as well as a great mind and body focusing, which turns practice into a ritual.
“Wei Xiaorong, contemporary Chinese painting” is included in the program organized by the Vice-rectorʼs Offce of Arts, Culture and Heritage of the University of Barcelona and the Badalona City Council in the exhibition room Josep Uclés in El Carme Cultural Centre. In this case, other collaborators were the Confucius Institute of Barcelona and the Vice-rectorʼs Office of Outreach and Internationalization of the University. The project is commissioned by Domènec Corbella, professor of Painting and emeritus lecturer of the UB.
The exhibition will be available until July 28, from Tuesday to Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.; on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Sundays and holidays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., free entrance.
Other activities
The exhibition offers two more activities. El Carme Cultural Centre will organize guided tours in the exhibition every Sunday, at 12 noon. Also, on June 11, at 6.30 p.m., the Confucius Institute Foundation of Barcelona (c. Elisabets, 10) will organize a live painting exhibition and dialogue with Wei Xiaorong, where the audience will enjoy the art of this master in person. The activity is aimed at students of Fine Arts and the general public interested in the Chinese traditional painting. Attendance is free but previous registration is required.
Images of the exhibition and the opening ceremony are available in Flickr: