Half the Sky Opening

Sculpture arrives for "Half the Sky" exhibition

Half the Sky: Women in the New Art of China , an historic exhibition of artwork by contemporary Chinese women artists, presented by Drexel University’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, opened to the public with a reception on September 23 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the new Leonard Pearlstein Gallery (3401 Filbert St).

More than 60 pieces of artwork, including photography, sculpture, video, painting and installation, by 22 women artists, will be on display. This survey-scale exhibition is the first of its kind in the United States. Co-curated with the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), the exhibit will be presented from Friday, September 23 to Saturday, November 12. 

A select group of Chinese dignitaries and artists were in attendance at the opening reception, including Fan Di’an, Director of the National Art Museum of China; Terry O’Neill, President, National Organization of Women; Wang Yenseng, Cultural Consul, Chinese Consulate; Yin Xiuzhen, an internationally acclaimed artist who represented China in the 2007 Venice Bienniale and was featured at the MOMA in 2010; and Cui Xiuwen, a world renowned photographer, whose work has been featured in some of the world’s most prestigious galleries and museums, including London’s Tate Modern and Victoria and Albert Museum.

It has been decades since Mao Zedong set communist ideology by proclaiming that women “hold up half the sky,” and yet Chinese women artists have yet to receive the attention they deserve on the world stage.  Half the Sky attempts to redress this situation by representing a cross-section of gifted women artists currently working in China and across the Chinese diaspora.

The exhibition will be free and open to the public, Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.drexel.edu/westphal.