Female Artists in China Get a Room of Their Own

Growing up, Li Wenzi thought of herself as a good girl. "I was very obedient. I was a good wife, a good daughter, a good sister," she said. But at 31, after watching her marriage crumble and her mother die of cancer, she had an awakening. While pursuing a graduate degree in communications at the New York Institute of Technology, Li took an elective class on feminist art. "I started understanding Western feminism," she said. "After that, I began to learn more about Chinese feminist art."

Today Li, 37, is the owner of the Three Quarters Art Gallery, an airy, open space that is the only gallery in China dedicated to female artists. In a country where women often struggle to be heard, the gallery is a platform for China's female artists, whose work often gets marginalized by their flashier and more famous male counterparts.

Since opening the gallery a year and a half ago, Li has held 12 exhibits. They include work from artists like Cui Xiuwen, whose paintings of a wounded schoolgirl in the Forbidden City scratch at themes of innocence and tradition, to the feminist artist and writer Li Hong, who explores female sexuality and desire in a series of softly painted orchids titled "Design and Color." She gathered a group of Tibetan artists together in a show called "Wind in Tibet."

There was even a show for male artists, titled "One Quarter." "That was a big joke," Li said. "One quarter is not the whole of three quarters," read the program. "Three quarters is the better part of one quarter."

The gallery's name, Three Quarters, is based on a famous Mao quote: Women hold up half the sky. "Women hold up one half, and men the other half," Li explained. "But half of the male one quarter of the whole reflects women." In fact, Li originally wanted to name the gallery Bluestocking, in honor of the 18th-century British women's literary movement, "but she thought it would be too special, too unusual," said Gu Yaping, a student at the Beijing Film Academy who recently finished filming a documentary about Li.

Gu, whose film explored Li's relationships and conflicts with female artists, feels China's female artists are often marginalized. "I was inspired to make the film because women artists don't get a lot of publicity in China," she said. "They're not in the mainstream."

Robert Bernell, a Beijing art consultant and managing director of Timezone 8, a Hong Kong-based art publishing company, separately agreed. "Things in China happen in an informal, fast, loose way," he said, adding that many exhibitions grow out of an old boys' club of late-night gatherings where "the guys are drinking. If you don't booze, you won't be included in the exhibit."

In fact, Beijing's burgeoning art scene has created new challenges for female artists. "The current situation has made things more difficult. Ten years ago, it was less commercial. There were fewer late-night dinners, karaoke, whatever," said Bernell, who moved to Beijing in 1995. "My sense is that the commercialization of contemporary art is changing the status of Beijing's female artists."

Many of China's female artists fear being ghettoized, or categorized with other women, simply because of their gender. "A lot of female artists feel exploited for their female identities," said Li Hong, the painter and writer featured in the Three Quarters exhibit titled "Pink." At the same time, many creative women want their works to be judged on their merits. "Women artists are a very diverse group," said Bernell. "Many feel that first and foremost, 'I'm an artist. I'm an individual. I don't want to be pigeonholed.'"

This can be challenging for artists who do not label themselves as feminists. "The radicalism of the 1960s and '70s that we associated with Western feminism never took root here," said Bernell. "Many female artists associate feminism with a radical political movement that is contrary to the personal nature of their work, which is just about the experience of being who they are." Nonetheless, keeping the Three Quarters gallery relevant is a constant challenge. With little experience in the arts field, Li has found it difficult to recruit new artists to represent. "I was a lawyer and journalist. I didn't graduate from art school," she said. "Some suspect my ability. Some prefer to find a male curator or manager because in their mind, although they are women, they think men are more powerful. I have to prove that I'm qualified." Despite this hurdle, her clients are grateful for Li Wenzi's support. "Many female artists have said, 'You give me respect or encouragement,'" she said. Gu, the documentary filmmaker, feels there is space in the Chinese art scene for the Three Quarters gallery. "We need a women's community to provide support only then will others begin to recognize our work."

Bernell, the art consultant, made the same point. "The Three Quarters gallery has certainly filled a need. Frankly, there are just not enough galleries in Beijing, so anyone dealing seriously with these artists is doing us a favor."

For Li, however, perhaps the biggest struggle is financial. "We've only made money on two exhibits so far," she acknowledged. "In China, not many people know about contemporary art and there isn't much curiosity or a desire to learn more."

To attract more local interest, she has begun adding the work of male artists to her exhibits. "I hope to accept male artists," she said. "But if their works are ugly, violent, bloody then I will refuse them."

With a recent surge of attention in Chinese contemporary art in the international market, Li is hopeful that she will attain her ultimate goal. "My dream is to host cultural exchanges between Chinese and foreign female artists," she said. "Women need to have a voice. And art is one way that women can speak loudly." Eventually, she hopes her gallery will change perceptions for both genders. "In China, there is no god, no emperor. This society and history is like a heavy mountain. It's too heavy to change and impossible to rebel or destroy. But art changes softly."

(C) 2006 International Herald Tribune. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved