Gallery Talk: Chinese Roots, Contemporary Sensitivity

This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP here for updates on this and other exhibition-related events.

Susan L. Beningson is an independent curator based in New York City. Her most recent exhibition We The People: Xu Bing and Sun Xun Respond to the Declaration of Independence was part of the Asia Society Museum Triennial (2020-2021). From 2013 through 2019 she served as a curator of Asian Art at the Brooklyn Museum. Her curatorial projects during this tenure included the exhibition One: Xu Bing and the reinstallation of the Arts of China galleries. Previously, Dr. Beningson taught Asian and Islamic art history at the City University of New York, Rutgers University, and Columbia University and worked at the Princeton University Art Museum. She has lectured and published widely on both contemporary and historical Asian art. She is a member of the Collections and Museum Advisory Committees of the Asia Society and previously served on the board of the Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution. Prior to her museum and academic careers, she worked in the corporate sector.

Dr. Beningson received her doctoral degree in Chinese art and archaeology and master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University and a master’s degree in Business Administration from New York University.

Vishakha Desai - A noted scholar of Asian art and the life partner of Robert Oxnam, Vishakha N. Desai has been a senior advisor for Global Affairs to the President and Chair of Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University for more than a decade. Prior to joining Columbia, Dr. Desai was at the Asia Society for twenty two years, initially as the director of its museum and as Vice President for Arts and Culture programs, and then as President of the global organization from 2004 through 2012. She is known for introducing American audiences to the contemporary arts of Asia through such landmark exhibitions as Traditions/Tensions: Contemporary Arts from Asia, Inside Out: Contemporary Chinese Art, and Edge of Desire: Recent Art from India. As President of the Asia Society, Dr. Desai was the first woman and person of Asian origin to lead the legendary organization encompassing arts, culture, policy, and education. She expanded the Society’s scope by establishing Asia21, a program for emerging leaders from Asia and the U.S. and a center on U.S.-China relations, opening offices in India and Korea, and inaugurating new buildings in Hong Kong and Houston in addition to New York. Prior to joining Asia Society, Desai was a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in charge of Indian, Southeast Asian and Islamic arts as well as head of academic and public programs. She began her museum career as a twenty-one year-old educator at the Cleveland Museum of Art and served as a head fo family programs at the Brooklyn Museum before going to graduate school. In recognition of her distinguished museum career, President Barak Obama appointed her to the board of Institute of Libraries and Museums. Recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, Dr.Desai received her doctorate in Asian Art from University of Michigan and holds five honorary degrees. Her books include, Life at Court: Art for India’s Rulers (1985), Gods, Guardians, and Lovers: Temple Structures from North India, 700-1200 AD (1994), Asian Art in the 21st Century (ed. 2006), and an award winning memoir, World as Family: A Journey of Multi-rooted Belongings (2021). Her new edited volume, Politics of Visual Arts in a Changing World will be published in late 2025 by Columbia University Press.

About the Exhibition:

Finding Qi (pronounced chee) showcases Oxnam’s sculpture, paintings, and photography, inspired by Chinese scholar stones and cultural concepts. “In Chinese tradition, the term Qi has many meanings, but for me, it means an invisible but palpable source of creative energy, both artistically and psychologically,” Oxnam once explained.

As an artist, in the later decades of his life, Oxnam took inspiration from the thousand-year tradition of transforming ancient, weathered stones into Chinese Scholar’s rocks, creating a contemporary take on the roots and tree trunks found on North Fork beaches. He emphasized the infinite variety of these sea-tossed shapes with sandpaper and milk paint, reshuffling place and time. He aimed to release what he called their “inner dynamism,” an approach he took from the Chinese concept of Qi. His photographs are close-up macro lens meditations on the glacial rocks at Rocky Point, and his paintings are modernized versions of Chinese splash ink paintings, but with added acrylic paints on Chinese rice paper. The exhibition is complemented with programming, including two panel discussions regarding Chinese art and dissociative brain disorders, respectively, as they relate to Oxnam’s work.

“No matter the medium, no matter how various the results, what Robert Oxnam did with his art was to merge cultures and experiences into the creation of something that is both rooted and new,” notes Amei Wallach. Oxnam died at his Greenport home in April, 2024. Finding Qi honors his legacy.

Join Amei, Vishakha, and members of our creative community for the Opening Reception held at the The Andy Tarshis Fine Art Gallery [133 E. Main St., Riverhead] and the 11 West Gallery [11 W. Main St., Riverhead] to celebrate Robert's work and influence. Light refreshments are served.

Please note, photos and/or video may be taken during this event and used for marketing purposes. Please reach out to eeagallery@eastendarts.org if you require any accommodations.

Exhibition is on view Thursdays-Sundays, April 5th - May 10th and will include other special gallery events.

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