| |

CAFA & Red Gate Open Studios

ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 17

CAFA

Central Academy of Fine Arts, CAFA is a world class university with many distinguished faculty and alumni. It is located in the northeast Chaoyang section of Beijing. In 2008, on the 90th anniversary, the school opened a major museum designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki. There is a well-stocked art supply store on campus.

Red Gate Gallery, mentioned in a previous post, also operates an international artist residency program. Different from Inside Out Art Museum’s residency, Red Gate has space for six international artists at a time (more if couples) and is located in a designated art district. IOAM is primarily a contemporary art museum and theater complex with one or two artists in residence at a time. Its neighborhood contains a diverse range of urban life, businesses, the daily shouting and singing of children at a middle school playground, restaurants, grocery store, bank, and street vendors selling fruit and clothes. I preferred living and working at IOAM, an integrated community with a wide range of regular people, none of them westerners except me.

It takes about an hour to go anywhere in the city from IOAM in Haidian. Using taxis is not much faster than public transportation, a combination of bus and subway, due to heavy traffic at all times of day. However, this trip required transfers with a walk at the end. Mixing in taxis kept it under two hours.

CAFA

Central Academy of Fine Arts, CAFA

CAFA

oil painting studios

CAFA

CAFA

CAFA

art in corridors under glass or opposite windows with too many reflections for good photographs at CAFA

CAFA

CAFA

CAFA

CAFA

live rabbit drawing models

CAFA

calligraphy studio

CAFA

nothing was moved to make this photograph

CAFA

paintings stacked in the hall

CAFA

paintings stacked on a moving truck

CAFA

CAFA Art Museum designed by Arata Isozaki

CAFA

Red Gate Open Studio

Red Gate Gallery Artist Residency Open Studios

Red Gate Open Studio

artists who arrange found objects on the floor

Red Gate Open Studio

Red Gate Open Studio

Manufaktor, Berlin theater artist

Red Gate Open Studio

Nova Scotia photographer Julie Forgues, arctic artist residency in 2016

Red Gate Open Studio

Liang posing with roses

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

To see all blog posts in this topic, select tab above marked TRAVELS > CHINA.

Save

Similar Posts

  • | |

    Ming Dynasty City Wall

    ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 14 At first I regretted choosing to visit the longest remaining section of Ming Dynasty city wall in Beijing. My first view of the wall was squeezed between new hotels, apartment buildings, and a major rail station. But after passing the Marriott in the northeast corner and a ten minute walk through a recently improved wooded park next to the mostly hidden east wall, the true relic emerged. Built…

  • | |

    Palace Museum Side Halls

    ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 16 It is called Forbidden City because it was forbidden to enter or leave without the emperor’s permission. It was the central seat of political and ceremonial power in China for 500 years, 1406—1912. The central axis is comprised of a series of throne rooms and vast courtyards. On either side are warrens of intimately scaled private rooms, kitchens, apartments, and chapels. Some halls are now museums containing extraordinary…

  • | |

    Dian Xin Restaurant

    ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 36 Lunch on Nanjing Road was an exquisite meal after the exhilaration of the Shanghai Tower. The taste of every dish was unbelievable, carefully selected by Jaiyi. The second floor restaurant is through a nondescript corner door next to a food stall window. Among the regional dishes were steamed dumplings, eel soup, prawns, soft crab tofu, and crab shell pies. If I could return to China it might be…

  • | |

    Departure Haidian

    ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 26 The opportunity offered by the Inside Out Art Museum for an artist residency in Beijing fulfilled my lifelong desire to go to China. While there, the museum made no demands on my time, in part because the residency manager left her job the week I arrived. Everyone else in the museum was busy installing and promoting major shows. I alternated studio days of painting and drawing with day…

  • | |

    Confucius Temple & Guozijian

    ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 11 Confucius, first teacher and moralist, lived 551–479 BC without power or status. The temple compound built to venerate him in Beijing and its neighbor the Guozijian, Imperial Academy are a short walk from the Yonghegong, Tibetan Buddhist Lamasery. Begun in 1287, the Confucius Temple functioned officially until the end of feudal rule in 1911. The grueling civil service examination system at the Guozijian, gatekeeper of upward mobility, ended…

  • | |

    Tian’anmen

    ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — BEIJING, no. 20 The front entrance to the Imperial City in Beijing is called Tian’anmen, or Gate of Heavenly Peacemaking. First built in 1415 during the Ming Dynasty, it is where Mao Zedong’s portrait is centrally hung. Forbidden city is within the Imperial City north of Tian’anmen. The immense open area called Tian’anmen Square is on the opposite side of a busy street from Imperial City gate. Tunnels are used to…