Exhibition explores women's perspectives

A group exhibition featuring Chinese and Canadian female artists held in Vancouver this month offers a glimpse into the interests of women artists from different cultural backgrounds, living environments and generational perceptions.

Entitled In the Mood for Love, the ongoing show at Poly Culture Art Center in Vancouver features works by 28 female artists from China and Canada, covering Chinese traditional ink paintings, oil paintings, sculptures, video works, photographs, prints and fashion designs.

Unlike male artists' interests in grand themes, female artists often dedicate themselves to a more self-focused emotion to explore their inner selves, academic director Fu Yijing says in her preface of the show.

She says that the power of women is less compared to men. Although female artists are increasing in numbers and their power grows, they still are not the major voice of the contemporary art world.

The exhibition features works by 22 Chinese artists showcasing the development of contemporary art after the concept was introduced to China in the mid-1980s.

The artists whose works are featured range from 57-year-old Xiao Lu to Geng Xue, a promising 34-year-old video artist known for her innovative exploration of Chinese culture using multimedia.

There are six influential Canadian female artists taking part in the show. They include artist and writer Emily Carr, whose works were inspired by the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast and express a spiritual connection to British Colombia's landscapes, and abstract oil painter Rita Letendre.