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In our first Frank Davis Memorial Lecture of 2021, 'Asian Art after Quarantine', The Courtauld is thrilled to be joined by the team behind Post from The First Lockdown.

Post from the First Lockdown (www.lockdownpost.org) is an archive of artists’ responses to the first outbreak of Covid-19 from the Hubei region, from 7 February to the end of March 2020. This date, which was set in the open call since the beginning, uncannily corresponds to the end of the lockdown in China and the beginning of the lockdown in the UK. Almost a year after, with the UK still locked down, Gaia Fugazza, Luigi Galimberti and Sha Li will present this collection of works from over 30 artists. The talk will feature exclusive recorded interviews with some of the participating artists and a reading of the poem 一千零一 (One Thousand and One) by curator Boliang Shen.

Now online at: www.lockdownpost.org Info: post@grandine.co.uk

Participating artists: Cang Xin, Chen Peifang, Chen Qiang, Chen Xi, Cui Yu, Deng Jianjin, Dong Mo, Fang He, Ge Yulu, Han Bo, Ji Xuefei, Jiang Cheng, Jin Haofan, Jin Jinghong, Juan Po, Ke Ming, Li Dann, Li JiKai, Li Jingxiong, Li Liao, Liu Xinyi, Lu Shan, Luo Kai, Luxi Liu, Ma Jun, Tan Tan, Wang Zhiyi, Wen Jing, Yang Fei, Yuan Han, Zhang Jing, Zhu Xu, Zi Jie.

Gaia Fugazza’s practice includes paintings and performance, exploring the troubled relationship of humans and the natural environment, plant knowledge, reproduction and transcendental practices. Fugazza completed an MA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts in 2014. She had solo and duo exhibitions at Gallleriapiú; Bologna, Haüsler Contemporary; Zurich, Zabludowicz Collection; London, Spazio Cabinet, Milano. Selected group shows include Royal Academy, Lisson Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, Baltic Triennial 13, Mimosa House, LUX; London. Fugazza regularly collaborates with other artists and curators to create alternative ways to present works such as the party My Night of Unlimited Favour and Grandine. Grandine is an independent non-profit program of exhibitions and events hosted by Gaia Fugazza’s studio in Hackney Wick, London. Focusing on the importance of collaborations and lightness, Grandine is a testing ground for urgent projects.

Luigi Galimberti is a Board Member of Res Artis, the largest network of artist residencies in the world. He currently manages one of the UK's nine Creative Clusters at the University of the Arts London, having joined from Tate, where he previously held the position of Research Manager. From 2012 to 2016, he was Director of Transnational Dialogues, an exchange program for artists, architects, designers and writers across Brazil, China and several European countries. Luigi is the founder of ARTE PY, a project to support and promote the arts and creative industries in Paraguay.

Sha Li is an independent curator based in London, UK and Vancouver, Canada. She has worked at various institutions, exhibitions, and a series of curatorial projects in Vancouver, Beijing, Shanghai, London, Paris, and Copenhagen. Sha is interested in Asian perspectives on visual and digital culture. Her practices embrace open-endedness, creativity, collaboration, multi-disciplinary, process-based work, and participatory platform, fostering alternative dialogues and engaging with a wider audience and youth generations. Sha Li holds a MA of Curating Contemporary Art at Royal College of Art, London, UK, and a BFA of Film and Integrated Media at Emily Carr University of Arts + Design in Vancouver, Canada.

Image: Luxi Liu, Untitled, 2020.

About the series 'Asian Art after Quarantine':

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, there has been a surge in racist attacks against Asian and Asian diasporic people across the globe; from everyday microaggressions to the recent mass shootings in Atlanta, USA, in March 2021. Yet, international media coverage has continued to disproportionally focus on the ‘China threat’ instead of giving voice and visibility to Asian communities. In solidarity with social justice movements and organisations such as #iamnotavirus, Stop AAPI Hate and StopDiscriminAsian (SDA), the 2021 Frank Davis Lecture Series presents a series of dialogues and conversations centred on Chinese and British-Chinese diasporic artistic experience in a turbulent year marked by city-wide quarantines and isolation, a scarcity of funding and public platforms for the arts, the unmasking of institutional structures of racism and anti-Asian violence.