OPENING RECEPTION: Tuesday, January 21, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Guest curated by Xianjun Song

About the Exhibition | 关于展览

The West Vancouver Art Museum is proud to feature the works of Xiangmei Su and Jiangang Su, two highly accomplished artists from Suzhou, China, who have call British Columbia home. Both artists draw on traditions from their place of origin, bringing with them expertly honed weaving and ink wash painting techniques to create artworks that reveal complex relationships between place and culture.

Xiangmei Su’s threaded works explore her family’s migration story through the lens of Suzhou’s textile history, connecting both past and present, East and West. Jiangang Su has drawn upon centuries of Song dynasty painting and Tang dynasty poetry within his work. Bringing these traditional artforms into a contemporary context, the artist seamlessly merges Chinese literati painting with Vancouver’s local flora and fauna.

Neighbours presents a blend of personal and cultural aspirations, woven into the multicultural fabric of the artist’s new home. Rooted in ancient Chinese traditions and aesthetics, their works offer audiences in the West a glimpse into the core humanistic philosophies of Chinese culture while providing new perspectives on how they “relocated” these traditions in a globalized world.

西温美术馆荣幸携手独立策展人宋贤军女士呈现《Neighbours | 邻·礼》艺术展，展示来自中国苏州的艺术家苏向与苏健刚移居加拿大后的艺术创作。两位艺术家从故土的传统文化中汲取灵感，分别以苏州的编织艺术与中国经典水墨创作出地域文化与个人情感所交织的独特作品，并将他们各自的艺术理想与实践融入加拿大的多元文化背景中。

苏向以苏州千年纺织业的“线”为媒介，织出连接历史与当下、东方与西方的艺术图景，述说移民的心路历程；苏健刚的书画作品则以古论今，融合本地自然及人文元素，重新演绎中国宋代绘画与唐朝诗歌中的经典并赋予其更为深刻的时代意义。

展览的作品根植于中国传统美学，作为来自东方的文化之礼，让生活在西方的观众得以一窥中国传统文化中所蕴含的核心人文思想。展览不仅探讨了中国文化在全球化和多元社区中的传承路径，也为其在海外的延续及传播提供了全新的视角与思考。

About the Curator | 关于策展人: 

Xianjun Song is an independent curator originally from Shanghai, China now working and living in Canada. Formerly the marketing director of VISION, a pioneering Chinese publication that shaped the avant-garde art, fashion, and design scene in China during the 2000s, Song curated exhibitions showcasing some of the most prominent artists of the era. Her curatorial work coincided with Shanghai’s rise as a cultural hub in Asia. Alongside her curatorial projects, Song has collaborated with international architects on both commercial and award-winning residential designs in and around Shanghai, blending global artistic influences with local cultural heritage, contributing to the creation of distinctive and noteworthy properties. After moving to Canada, Song is committed to building cultural bridges between East and West and fostering cultural dialogues through art within the city’s vibrant multicultural community.

宋贤军是一位来自中国上海的独立策展人，现工作生活于加拿大。她曾是中国先锋视觉艺术杂志《VISION》的核心成员，期间由她参与组织策划的文化项目及艺术展览见证了21世纪上海作为亚洲文化及艺术中心的崛起。除了艺术策展外，她还曾与多位国际知名建筑师携手，在上海及其周边地区设计并建造了各类融合国际艺术与地域人文的商业及私宅空间。移居加拿大后，她积极致力于构建东西方文化的桥梁，在多元文化社区中通过艺术来促进不同文化之间的对话与交流。

About the Artists | 关于艺术家:

Xiangmei Su is a multimedia artist from Suzhou, China currently residing in Canada. She earned a BA in Visual Arts from the University of British Columbia and works across a variety of mediums, including installation, painting, photography, and video. Su’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in both China and Canada. Her first solo show, The Wind, was exhibited at the Changshu Art Museum in China in 2012. She later presented solo exhibitions at Vancouver’s R Space in 2018 and the Seymour Art Gallery in North Vancouver in 2020. In 2022, Su was an artist-in-residence at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, where she showcased two solo exhibitions: Intangible Thread - Part One and Intangible Thread — Part Two. In 2023 and 2024, she held solo shows at Lipont Gallery in Richmond and Canton-sardine Gallery in Vancouver engaged more public interactions. Su has also published three catalogues of her work. In addition to her artistic practice, she delivered a TEDx Talk in 2020 titled Becoming Who I Am, and, in 2022, she served as an exhibition advisor for the West Vancouver Community Arts Council’s Jury for Exhibitions at the Kay Meek Arts Centre.

苏向是一位来自中国苏州的多媒介艺术家，现工作生活于加拿大。她毕业于英属哥伦比亚大学，获得视觉艺术学士学位，创作涵盖装置、绘画、摄影和影像等多种媒介。苏向的作品曾在中国和加拿大的多次个展及联展中展出。她的首次个展《风》于 2012 年呈现于中国常熟美术馆。定居加拿大后分别于2018年在温哥华的融空间，及2020年在北温哥华的Seymour美术馆举办了个展。2022年，苏向受邀成为温哥华中山公园的驻留艺术家，并举办了《无形的线——第一部分》及《无形的线——第二部分》两场个展。2023年和2024年，她分别在列治文的力邦画廊及温哥华的沙甸鹹水埠画廊举办了个展，期间与公众进行了更多的互动。苏向目前已出版了三本作品画册，记录了她不同时期的创作。此外，她还于2020年发表了题为《成为我自己》的TEDx 演讲，并于 2022 年担任西温哥华社区艺术委员会Kay Meek艺术中心展览评审团的展览顾问。

Jiangang Su, from Suzhou, China, is a multidisciplinary artist and educator who specializes in Chinese calligraphy, painting, seal carving, and kintsugi art. In the 1980s, he trained under the renowned calligrapher and seal carver Gongda Yan, a professor at Tsinghua University and vice-chairman of the Chinese Calligraphers Association. In the 1990s, Su continued his studies in arts and crafts at Changshu Institute of Technology in China. He later received senior teacher certification in calligraphy from the Chinese Calligraphers Association. Since immigrating to Canada in 2016, Su has exhibited his work at various venues including Lipont Gallery in Richmond, Sunzen Art Gallery in Vancouver, and Richmond Art Gallery. He was invited to be the artist-in-residence at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden from 2022 to 2023, where he co-organized the Vancouver International Chinese Calligraphy Contest. In 2023, Jiangang Su held a solo exhibition Home Across the Water at Vancha, a traditional Chinese tea house in West Vancouver. In the same year, he was hired to teach Chinese calligraphy, painting and seal caring at Mulgrave School in West Vancouver. Jiangang Su's works are held in collections at various institutions in both China and Canada.

苏健刚来自中国苏州，是一位深耕中国传统文化的艺术家及艺术教育者。自幼学习中国传统书画，20世纪80年代他师从著名书法家和篆刻家、清华大学教授、中国书法家协会副主席言恭达先生，专攻书法、绘画、篆刻与金缮艺术。 90 年代，苏健刚在常熟理工学院继续深造工艺美术，之后获得中国书法家协会书法高级教师资质，并投入更广泛的艺术教育工作中。自 2016 年移民加拿大至今，苏健刚的作品在众多本地艺术机构展出，包括列治文的力邦画廊、温哥华的三生缘画廊及列治文美术馆等。2022 年至 2023他受邀成为温哥华中山公园的驻留艺术家，并与中山公园共同组织了“温哥华国际中文书法大赛”。2023年，苏健刚在西温哥华的温茶里-中国茶文化空间举办了《彼岸吾乡》个展。同年，他还受西温哥华Mulgrave学校之聘，教授本地学生中国书法、绘画及篆刻艺术。目前苏健刚的艺术作品被中国和及加拿大的多家机构与个人收藏。