Twelve years after Alisan Fine Arts debuted the landmark exhibition Beyond the Jade Terrace (2014), which heralded a new vanguard in contemporary ink with female artists Chu Chu, Wang Mengsha, and Zhang Yirong — we now reconvene at Alisan Atelier with Revisiting the Jade Terrace, where we are honoured to present the established pillars of the same artists who now stand as major figures in contemporary ink art.
Over the past decade, each artist has reached significant milestones in their careers. Chu Chu, a multimedia artist, has developed a distinct visual language that seamlessly integrates photography with calligraphy. Her work is held in prestigious international collections, including Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. Over the past decade, Wang Mengsha has emerged as a standout talent, collaborating with prominent brands such as Guan Xia and Proya. Her artistic style has evolved into a deeply personal yet widely celebrated aesthetic.
Meanwhile, Zhang Yirong immerses herself in meticulous gongbi painting, revitalizing the essence of Chinese aesthetics. Her works have entered major institutions in the United States, including Brooklyn Museum in New York, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles. Finally, Zhang Ying is drawn to the spiritual dimensions of traditional Chinese landscape painting. Over the past ten years, she has been dedicated to evocative depictions of landscapes, rocks, and trees.
Presented as part of the gallery's year-long 45th-anniversary programme, Then and Now, the exhibition forms the "Now" component of a dialogue between generations, highlighting the vitality of contemporary ink practice while reflecting on the traditions from which it emerged.
In parallel, the "Then" chapter unfolds at our Central gallery, bringing together four influential figures associated with the New Literati Movement—Chen Jialing, Jiang Baolin, Lu Fusheng, and Peng Xiancheng. Together, the two exhibitions consider how Chinese ink painting continues to evolve across generations, responding to changing social, cultural, and artistic landscapes.
Since its founding in 1981, Alisan Fine Arts has been committed to championing artists who expand and redefine the possibilities of Chinese art. Throughout the gallery's history, women artists have played an important role in this story, contributing perspectives that have enriched and transformed the field. Today, as contemporary ink painting continues to embrace new forms of expression, female artists occupy an increasingly prominent position within its development.
First emerging in 6th-century literature, the Jade Terrace has carried the expressions of women across centuries. The scholar-poet Xu Ling named his classic love poetry anthology New Songs from a Jade Terrace after the lavish chambers where upper-class women spent their lives in isolation. Over time, the Jade Terrace has transcended those physical walls to become a poetic sanctuary—an ideal space where women unite in aesthetic expression. Today, it has transformed from a space of constraint into a generative lens on Chinese culture, art, and female artists. This exhibition traces the gallery's history, celebrating how artists continue to redefine space, tradition, and expression.
Born between the 1960s and 1980s, Chu Chu, Wang Mengsha, Zhang Ying, and Zhang Yirong represent distinct artistic voices shaped by different experiences, concerns, and approaches to the medium. While their practices vary widely—from experimental combinations of photography and calligraphy to reimagined figure painting, contemplative landscapes, and meticulous gongbi compositions—they share a commitment to extending the expressive potential of ink beyond convention.
