Historical Background 

Under  the increasing awareness of the interconnectivity and globalization of  the 21st century, art historians have begun to critically examine our  much traditional and out of date view on the history of art. No longer  are they adopting the Euro-American centric model that delineates a  singular narrative of art history, which perhaps excluded and ignored  much of the rest of the world. Scholars are now identifying that there  exists and have existed multiple narratives that lie in conjunction with  the Euro-American model.

Arts coming from the region outside of  Euro-America were contextualized and decontextualized into a western  narrative. Countries such as China were perceived in a strictly  “East/West” dichotomy that emphasized the West’s modernity and the East’  s tradition. Chinese art, especially the arts coming from mainland,  were seen as stuck in the past and even China’s modern artists were  perceived as derivatives of their western counterparts. Scholarship  nowadays, have given light to the histories and narratives of each  region and culture while highlighting the equally modern and  contemporary efforts of artists around the world. No longer do we see  China’s modern movement as a derivative of the Euro-American one, which  came at a much later time than the latter.

 Concept 

With the  hyper-globalization felt in every corner of the world, a new generation  of artists have emerged, eager to express the contemporaneity they have  experienced in their everyday lives.

Contemporary Dissonance is an  exhibition like that of an experimental laboratory and artist  playground, inviting young and emerging artists to showcase their own  understanding of contemporaneity. No longer do these artists see  histories of art and narratives as just intersecting and crossing over,  but rather as a fluid and dynamic exchange that almost erases all sense  of established identities and locales. They question the “East/West”  dichotomy but moreover, they question the establishment of multiple  narratives and histories: how do you separate one cultural identity from  the other when the world you have experienced is fluid and dynamic? The  three artists in this exhibition, Katusha Jin, Eric Lau, Yvonne Kwok,  all from different backgrounds and upbringings, question the very  narrative of art and experience in their own works. Through the  different media of painting, filming and photography, there seems to be  this common thread that links these artists together -- a rejection of  pre-existing labels and identities while also a sense of uneasiness as  they fail to find an identity they can associate with. The result is an  exhibition of works from these artists that seem to voice a contemporary  dissonance to the currently established narratives and identities.

 Team 

Katusha  Jin is a New York based filmmaker, painter and music designer from the  U.K. She is a graduate from NYU Tisch, and is a co-founder of Art  Avenue. During the past few years she has worked with a variety of  artists in many parts of the world, including Hong Kong, Moscow,  Beijing, Los Angeles, and New York. Her goal now is to continue to  discover and share international stories through collaborations with  artists around the globe.

Kadi  Tsang is a graduate from NYU Tisch and a co-founder of Art Avenue. She  is a trillingual artist with interests in both Arts and Sciences, global  development, and conflicts of human nature. Kadi has worked on various  types of live and motion picture productions, and has experience working  in different departments. Being open-minded and taking the initiative  on each of her projects, she devotes herself to creating an  inspirational world that facilitates cultural exchange.

Cindy  Xingyi Qi is a second-year art history master student at the Institute  of Fine Arts, NYU. She is interested in the development of Chinese art  since the late 20th century and the narratives that are used to  systematize and retrace this emergence. As an independent curator, she  wishes to highlight the multi-faceted identities of emerging and  up-and-coming artists today and to encourage a broader and more  encompassing idea of identity in the arts.

 Artists 

Eric  is a multi-disciplined Creative Director & Art Director based in  New York and raised in Hong Kong. He was first hooked with photography  after an advertising photo shoot, and studied studio photography while  pursuing communication design.

His photographs have earnered  around 50K followers on Instagram; featured in the NY Times, TimeOut  New York, PSFK, South China Morning Post, Perspective Magazine,  held  numerous sharing about his anti-gear approach for photography, and been  shown in 14 exhibitions in NYC, HK, and Taipei.

Katusha  is a New York-based filmmaker, painter, and music designer from the  U.K. Having participated in her first New York art exhibition in 2018,  she now focuses on exploring the cultural identity of international  artists.

Fascinated and inspired by her past collaborations  with international artists, Katusha has chosen these culturally diverse  artists as the subject of her work. Through art films and paintings, she  documents her inspirations gathered from working with these artists and  understanding their process of artistic creation and expression.

Yvonne  is a Hong Kong born, New York City based freelance visual artist. She  aims to connect martial arts and visual arts through her artwork as she  has discovered many similarities and connections between the two art  forms.

Yvonne Kwok  grew up practicing Chinese calligraphy  and received her BFA at Hunter College where she discovered her passion  in Western painting. With her multicultural background and as a martial  artist specialized in traditional Taekwon-do and Practical Wing Chun,  her works often merge Eastern and Western aesthetics and philosophies.