On the afternoon of December 15, 2018, the New Horizons Young Talents Exhibition organised by Gree Real Estate, China Design Centre and Domi Art Design was launched at the Coast Gallery. Jack Qu, Founder of China Design Centre in London; Liping Li, art consultant and curator of Gree; Zhiwen Tang, partner and curator of Duo Mi Art Design; Charlotte and Peter Fiell, the renowned design critics and authors; Grant Baker, Head of Product Design at Nottingham Trent University; Jian Zhang, Professor of Industrial Design College of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts; and other guests attended the opening ceremony. A dialogue with the theme of “the relationship between design and culture” was also held at the Coast Bookstore.
New Horizons brings together more than 100 designers and artists, showcasing disciplines including product, furniture, jewellery, visual communication, fine art. Works by graduates and students from internationally renowned institutes such as Royal College of Art, University for the Creative Arts, University of the Arts London, Nottingham Trent University, Central Academy of Fine Arts, China Academy of Art, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts are exhibited.
Not only showing the new power of Chinese art and design, the exhibition is also a rare opportunity to present the international talents for the audience from the region. New Horizons highlights the diversity of art and design approaches from artists and designers with different educational and cultural background.
Exhibition Dates: 15/12/2018 - 25/02/2019
Location: Coast Gallery, 2F Coast Business Park, Qinglv N Road, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China
The curators carefully selected the range of works for the exhibition from the entries, and our judging panel, Charlotte and Peter Fiell picked 10 winners for the New Horizons 2018 Award.
Please find the following list and introduction of the 10 young talents. For the full exhibition catalogue, view the PDF here.
Gold Prize
1. ’Qishan - Beiming’, Liqi Chen
Jewellery designer graduated from China Academy of Art (BA).
Liqi Chen is good at trimming, modifying, processing and collaging materials that are common in life to express the beauty of rhythm. By changing its exterior while creating something new inside, and marrying the traditional with the modern, East with the West, Chen gives new life to the mundane materials. 'Qishan - Beiming' is inspired by phoenixes and other magic birds from an ancient Chinese tale.
2. ’MIX’, Bingqi Lee
Furniture designer graduated from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London (MA) and Central Academy of Fine Arts (BA).
Bingqi Lee is an independent designer and focused on furniture design, and she also concentrated on the combination and innovative design of metal materials and modern technologies. With the growth of the new generation of consumers and the constant innovation of lifestyle, in the context of contemporary design trends, the designer use minimalist design language to reinterpret elements from traditional Chinese architecture, decoration and painting by exploring the psychological and aesthetic needs of the current consumers, in order to create everyday and functional modern furniture.
3. ’Watch Out, They Left’, Hua Wang
MA Ceramics & Glass graduate from Royal College of Art in 2018.
Hua Wang’s experimental practice can be seen as a ceramics testing ground as well as a conceptual laboratory that investigates on diverse personal, social and political themes. Part of a generation of Chinese artists who grew up during a period of rapid urbanisation, she said: “Gender, hierarchy, there is often more to this matter than meets the eye. I try to pay attention when unjustified incidents happen.” Using a range of different types of clay and methods of making on philosophical ideas such as the increasing materialism and obsolescence of our society. Hua employs drawing, painting, sculpture and video to echo conditions where family stories and social events are inextricably interwoven into an autobiographical structure.
Excellence Prize
1. ‘Fluctuation From Disorder to Order (Menlancholy)’, Siliang Ma
Ma graduated from Royal College of Art, MA Photography in 2018 and BA Fashion Photography from London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London in 2007. Since 2008 he has worked with fashion shoots and portraits for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, GQ, Marie Claire, Esquire, etc.
2. ‘Humans can only confess to Something rather than Somebody’, Chih-Yang Chen
Chih Yang Chen graduated from Royal College of Art, Visual Communication in 2017. Currently based in London, he is a graphic designer and a visual artist, working through graphics, prints, photography, moving images, short films and installation. Chih Yang has exhibited his works in various countries including the UK, Taiwan, Russia, Italy, Greece, Norway, France and China. He also had his works published in magazines including Vice China, SHIFT(Japan), Aesthica, Lungs Project 2018, Al-Tiba9 Art Magazine Issue #2 (Spain) and Ascenders Volume.1(Australia). He won the Gold Prize of Indigo Design Awards in May 2018 and participated in the Golden Bee 13 Global Biennale of Graphic Design.
His artworks always communicate speculative concepts through surreal symbols. He focuses on exploring the subtle relationships that occur between individuals. The exhibited work consists of three narrative films and three pieces of 3D-printed objects. The objects visualise the emotional connection between humans and objects. The films illustrate what happens to the human around these three objects, what makes them confess to the objects when suffering from extremely painful and harsh emotions, and why these objects.
3. ’Magnifying Vase’, Zhe Feng
Zhe Feng is studying Product Design at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. His design works have won the Red Dot Award (Germany) and K-Design (Korea). Based on people’s general perception, a ring is placed on the top of the ‘Magnifying Vase’ and the opening is enlarged, to create a visual illusion that the flowers seem to be bigger than usual.
4. ‘Storage Box Series’, Peishan Mai
Peishan Mai studies Textile Design (2011-2015) and Product Design (2016-2019) at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.
Loose change mysteriously finds its way to the back of every sofa, into the very bottom of every draw and somehow scatters itself sporadically around the room, which is not a big problem but it is very annoying because can never find them when you need them. So having something that contains these coins is probably a worthwhile investment. The ‘Storage Box Series’ is more than just your regular piggybank; it combines a small storage tray to create a useful and minimal addition to the home. The subtle design features elevate its usability as well as enhance the level of visual interest; the slight lip around the perimeters of the tray contains the items thrown on top, while the narrower base visually lightens the product and raises it off the ground, creating an intriguing drop-shadow that completes the design.
5. ‘Otherworldly Bodies’, Kaja Upelj
Kaja Upelj is a Slovenian artist living and working in London. Although she uses glass as her main material to tell poetic stories, she researches other emerging materials as well, such as metals and wood. For her, designing with glass is an adventure because its dimensions are vast and full of discoveries.
Kaja Upelj creates works in glass that explore phenomena of colour and light. She is interested in freezing organic movement and line, choreographing them into subliminal form. Her works possess a life of their own, avoiding definition and embodying a sense of warmth and a wealth of emotions that arise from the working process. The most important aspect of Kaja’s creative work is altering the perception of glass, which is often seen as being sturdy and cold. She is constantly searching for ways to capture and convey the material in its most fundamental essence and the impression of fluidity. Kaja’s work is tactile and welcomes interaction from the audience, inviting both familiarity and personal connection.
6. ‘Redefine Waste’, Zeyun Chen
Zeyun obtained her BA(Hons) degree in Jewellery Design and Related Products at the School of Jewellery, Birmingham City University in 2016 and finished her Master’s Degree in Jewellery Design Gold and Silversmithing at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, Belgium in 2018. Her works exhibited at Salima Thakker Gallery in Antwerp (2018), and have been showcased over the past few years at London, Paris and Munich Fashion Week.
Zeyun finds that ‘waste’ and ‘artwork’ are just a fine line apart, although traditionally there may be a huge difference. By the collection ‘Redefine Waste’, she wishes to breakthrough this distinction. In Hong Kong, limited space and infinite waste have been such a difficult case. Every piece in this series is made from mainly household waste (e.g. used clothes, old newspaper, courier boxes, plastic bottles, takeaway food bags). To Zeyun, there are many different ways she can do the transformation with low energy consumption, either by hammering, cutting, riveting, or re-constructing the materials. She had set up a 30-day challenge for herself to transform the waste into jewellery items as many as she can, which are shown in this exhibition.
7. ‘Golden Sky’, Ruiqi Dai
Ruiqi Dai, as the twenty-two best graduate designer-makers from across the UK, graduated from University of the Arts London, after that, she furthered her study in Royal College of Art. Her design work was awarded “A’Design Award Bronze Prize in 2018 and her works have been exhibited internationally. Her latest series of works were collected by the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing.
To her, design is not purely about function. She intends to use design to connect physical material with the imaginary experience, to provoke the attention to the psychological needs that were overlooked, and to bring a sensual touch to the world we live in. “I intend to use lines that are full of elasticity to connect time and space, reality and virtual to provided audiences with an imaginary space, from solid vessels to the void of imagination.” Ruiqi’s work stems from a love of nature, she often uses the unique airbrush technique to show the effect of light and dark contrasts through the rotation of the earth and capture the constantly changing conditions of light and colour, this timeless sense of space.
