63 Artist Residencies in China and A Hidden Story: Touring with Brian Wallace

Artist residency programs have long been an overlooked thread in contemporary Chinese art history. Since the early 1990s, pioneering programs have offered rare opportunities for both international and Chinese artists to work under one roof, allowing craft, experience, culture, and new ideas to flow between them, and creating an impact that lasts to this day.

We toured Beijing’s Red Gate Gallery, the country’s earliest and longest-running private gallery, with its Australian founder, Brian Wallace, to hear firsthand stories from that exciting period. Its recent exhibition, “Origins of Artist Residencies in China: Another Pathway to Contemporary Chinese Art,” examines how artist residencies helped shape contemporary Chinese art.

Alongside the exhibition, Brian and his team just launched a database listing 63 currently operating artist residency projects across the Chinese mainland. Let us know in the comments what else you’d like to learn about China’s contemporary art scene.