Outreach Activities
CAAC often co-sponsors performances or collaborates with other presenting organizations. We regularly serve as a liaison to the local Chinese-language/focused media outlets to promote artists and events. Please refer to About CAAC for more details.
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2022.10.14Gallery 456 | Exhibition Opening & Artist Talk | Furong Zhang: Crossing the Dry Sea ....more
2022.8.24Book | Turandot at the Arena by Hao Jiang Tian Press Conference at CAAC ....more
2022.8.3CAAC Co-hosts Grant Information Session | LMCC 2024 MANHATTAN ARTS GRANTS DEADLINE 9/13 ....more
2022.6.5Chinese Opera: CAAC co-sponsors Beijing Opera "The Matchmaker" at Flushing Town Hall ....more
2022.4.8Gallery 456 | Exhibition Opening & Artist Talk | Heart in My Mouth by Rachel Hsu ....more
2022.2.4Gallery 456 | Artist Talk | Muted Landscape by Guo Zhen ....more
2021.12.18Gallery 456 | Exhibition Opening & Artist Talk | Flâneur Redux by Zelene Jiang Schlosberg ....more
2021.12.3Artist Talk | In Conversation: Chenlin Cai and Jiaoyang Li ....more
2021.11.19Roundtable Talk | Writing Across Borders: Chinese Female Writers on the Intersection of Language, Cinema, and Theatre ....more
2021.11.12Gallery 456 | Exhibition Opening | Body•Mark by Chenlin Cai ....more

Gallery 456 is pleased to present Chenlin Cai’s second New York solo exhibition Body•Mark featuring his recent works made between 2017 and 2021.

The artist combines medical images with artistic expression language to create a unique painting style. In his works, oil paint is diluted by mixing multiple media to become transparent and have ink-like fluidity. The brushwork of oriental ink and wash collides with the formal language of Western oil painting, and the surface texture of the work presents a cell structure similar to that seen under a microscope. This organic texture and visual language are a prominent personal label in his works.

The sudden pandemic has changed the way of life of people all over the world, and the trauma caused by the virus has left indelible scars or marks both physically and psychologically. How to treat the objective reality that diseases will coexist with humans for a long time is changing society's attitude towards diseases and patients. The awe and curiosity of life inspired mankind to explore the true meaning of life. Who am I, where am I from, and where will I go?

The artist painted the microstructure of cells and viruses on the surface of macroscopic objects such as human bodies and landscapes. The human cell tissue under the microscope shows a strange structure and texture. Observing the cell structure under this microscopic perspective brings a surreal experience. After the life structure from the micro perspective is enlarged, it presents a fragile beauty and a strange sense of fear. The spreading cellular structure gathers and reorganizes in the human body, just like the reprogramming of life again and again.

The human body reprogramed by cells, the landscape made by human bones under X-rays, and the transparent multi-layer paintings extended in the space. Chenlin Cai attempts to expand the visual expression and sense of form in his works, in order to provide a new way of viewing to art.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I create paintings with visual narratives about relationships between humans and our environment, historical moments and contemporary events. I borrowed some thought-provoking historical moments from the album of time, extracted the images out from the original context, and placed them in the current time and space, thereby creating a visual contradiction and conflict. I visually express the effects of catastrophic events on the human body in a beautiful and poetic way.

My works fuse oil painting medium with traditional Chinese ink-painting expression. My unorthodox use of oil paint on nontraditional surfaces allows me to create artificial cellular structures that divide the images into a mosaic texture. I created a unique texture to mimic the biological cellular structure from an under-the-microscopic perspective. In these paintings, the organic microscopic structures and the macroscopic natural landscape combine in mystifying presentation of the dislocation and overlap of transparent materials.

The transparency of the material brings more visual expressiveness to the overlapping images, therefore, a new form of observation is created. This form expresses the biology of the image as a social metaphor. I try to bring a different visual experience for viewers to ponder the questions about the consequences of human behavior in a wider time-space continuum.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Chenlin Cai is a multidisciplinary visual artist living in Philadelphia. Cai received his MFA from two world-renowned universities in fine arts, the Tsinghua University in China and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

Cai's works innovatively combine traditional Chinese ink painting with contemporary art expressions to create a unique visual image that fuses art and science. The uniqueness of his artistic style has caught the eye of collectors world-wide, including many Chinese and American collectors, and the Copelouzos Family Art Museum in Athens, Greece.

Cai has held solo exhibitions in Philadelphia and New York, including solo exhibition in Freeman's Auction Gallery, Philadelphia in 2018. Cai has participated in many art exhibitions such as New York Artexpo in 2021 and the 12th Florence Biennale in Italy 2019. Cai has won honors, including the “Excellent Artist Award” in “Eye Art•2017 International Youth Art Exhibition” in United Nations Headquarters, New York; and the “Coverly Smith Prize” in the Woodmere Art Museum’s 79th Juried Exhibition, Philadelphia.

Cai served as a judge for the National Youth Drawing Contest hosted by the World Journal for two consecutive years. Cai is also a productive mural artist. He has installed dozens of murals in the United States and China such as at Xuchang City Museum, Korean Cultural Center in Beijing, First Street Green Culture Park in New York, and 10th Street Plaza in Philadelphia Chinatown.

Cai is currently working with his artist team on creating a grand mural project for celebrating the 150th anniversary of Philadelphia Chinatown.


Opening Reception: Friday, November 12, 2021, 6 - 8PM

Please RSVP to attend the opening: https://forms.gle/9dqUhJs9egViT6py5



2021.10.10Artist Talk | In Conversation: Xiaojing Yan and Lilly Wei ....more