Zhou Xiaoping: blending traditional Chinese painting with Indigenous art

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 6 years ago

Zhou Xiaoping: blending traditional Chinese painting with Indigenous art

By John McDonald

​Age: 57

LIves: Bulleen, Victoria.

"Cultural Introduction Iii" by Zhou Xiaoping, 2017, ink and synthetic polymer on canvas, 100cm x 68cm, $9000.

"Cultural Introduction Iii" by Zhou Xiaoping, 2017, ink and synthetic polymer on canvas, 100cm x 68cm, $9000.Credit: Zhou Xiaoping

Represented by: Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne

His thing.

Chinese skills influenced by a close connection with Aboriginal art. Collaborations with Indigenous artists.

Our take.

Zhou Xiaoping trained as a traditional Chinese painter before moving to Australia in 1988. A number of Chinese émigré artists stayed here after the 1989 upheavals of Tiananmen Square, but Zhou was the only one to develop a deep fascination with Indigenous art. He has lived in and worked with Aboriginal communities, sustaining close ties with artists such as the Ganalbingu bark painter Johnny Bulunbulun, who died in 2010.

What was their relationship?

In 2011 Zhou mounted an exhibition called Trepang: China and the story of Macassan – Aboriginal Trade, a collaboration with Bulunbulun, at the Capital Museum in Beijing and Melbourne Museum. Zhou's current show with Lauraine Diggins includes a number of works from that landmark project. From Art to Life (2009) is a fishing scene that juxtaposes Zhou's delicate washes of ink and acrylic with Bulunbulun's sharply defined ochre painting. In another collaborative work, Discovery of Trading (2009), the imagery is more freely interwoven, with Zhou mingling a Chinese dragon with a rainbow serpent. The show even features a set of blue-andwhite porcelain bowls and vases on which Zhou has reproduced Bulunbulun's designs.

Advertisement

What has Zhou done more recently?

Painted a range of landscapes and Indigenous portraits in a loose, expressive style. He verges on abstraction in landscapes such as Red Country (2017), but his portraits are more realistic, warm and intimate.

Can I afford it?

Zhou has never previously had commercial representation. That said, his background in unique, high-profile museum projects means his work is not cheap. In this exhibition a portrait of Johnny Bulunbulun can only be sold to a museum. The highest-priced painting is $165,000, while the cheapest works are ceramic vases at $650 a pop. The least expensive paintings are four in a series called Cultural Introduction (each 100cm by 68cm, pictured), at $9000 each.

Where can I have a squiz?

Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, 5 Malakoff Street, Caulfield North, until April 21; diggins.com.au.

Most Viewed in Lifestyle

Loading