Gift: La storia di 100+ incisori cinesi

The world of small-format printmaking opens up to our eyes here on the occasion of the exhibition we curated within the spaces of the Milan Cultural Center. In the meantime I would like to thank my friend and Chinese artist Nanhao Wang for the valuable work he has done capable of collecting more than 100 etchings made between 2010 and 2024 by Chinese artists.

It is a great journey this one through small-format works that live in the magical dimension of EX-LIBRIS and then achieve their own independent life here on the occasion of the Milan exhibition.

As Nanhao Wang recalls “... Long ago the four great Chinese inventions (the compass gunpowder papermaking and printing) came to the European continent via the ancient Silk Road giving Europe new opportunities. The first woodblock prints invented as a new technical means of printing began to be used in China to produce texts and illustrations for the Scriptures and when they arrived in Europe they were also used to print Bible stories instead of the traditional handwritten books. Later based on the woodcuts the technique of intaglio printing was invented to produce even finer images which spread to China via the Silk Road.”

Thus following in the footsteps of the oldest tradition the works on view here at the exhibition were created using the techniques of woodcut aquatint drypoint black manner lithography and silkscreen printing. It will open to us a precious world in the universe of creation that from the East to the West comes through the path of expression in the dialogue between forms and techniques almost as if two old friends were exchanging “gifts” capable of bringing to each something different . The GIFT exhibition is all this but does not exhaust its “mission” only within the world of EX-LIBRIS that result present in format and sense here in the exhibition.

Bookmarks-which originated in Europe as part of the art of printing-are small objects engraved with the owner's name usually applied to the title page of a book as a sign of ownership just as happens in China.

If we want to collect a book we stamp it with an exclusive seal or sign it with our name.

As an art form that is currently not widespread unfortunately it equally has admirers collectors and creators who in the book exchange spread the beauty of bookmarks in the form of the EX-LIBRIS tradition.

GIFT will lead us to establish an even closer confrontation and encounter with the world of printing and books through a kaleidoscopic universe of highly expressive images where between figuration and abstraction the viewer can approach very different and refined worlds created by different people.

As Nanhao Wang recalls GIFT is just that: “...more than 100 people (elderly gentlemen scholars elementary school students well-known artists and young emerging creators) with different techniques and themes have told the unique story of each of them in the works that can be admired here at the exhibition held inside the Milan Cultural Center...”

Host or Publisher A60 Contemporary Art Space