2023

View All

Those Formative Years: Collecting from the 80s

Early Work in the Collection of Brian Wallace

Red Gate is happy to announce its new exhibition from my collection – Those Formative Years.

12 artists will be presenting work from 1989 to 1999. Painting, printmaking, mixed media and installations will reflect on the exciting times of the 90s when young artists were exploring a new future creating, discussing and exhibiting.

It was a formative time for the gallery scene as well - Red Gate opened in 1991 along with a number of other smaller galleries, most notably around Ritan Park. For many artists, it was the first time for them to exhibit in a commercial gallery space, and for the new ‘gallerists’, it was a learning curve from the ground up!

For me, this exhibition takes us back to the early days of the nascent art scene: many exhibitions were held in unused temples and Ming Dynasty structures around Beijing; we visited artists’ studios in small apartments, or farm houses in the Old Summer Palace; we were invited to the more up-market Salons Without Sofas in the home of the Australian cultural counsellor.

Many of the artists in the show have had a long association with Red Gate – some even from our very first exhibition held in the Dongbianmen Tower in July 1991. Most have played important early roles in China’s art scene and education, and many have built stellar careers over the last three decades.

The memories of those early, formative times flood back!

Brian Wallace

Director / Founder Red Gate Gallery