Female art exhibition shows power of opportunity

Displaying talent provides valuable publicity momentum to those who are too often overlooked in sector, Cheng Yuezhu reports.

This year sees the third edition of curator Zhu Yujie's group female art exhibition, a project hosted annually with the aim of offering more opportunities to women artists.

The exhibition Metaphor and Gaze opened in Shenzhen's La Vie Art Center, Guangdong province, on Feb 27.

Zhu says that she has been consciously and continuously learning about gender theory since university, and her master's studies in culture, criticism and curation at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in the United Kingdom drew her attention to the understated roles of women in art history.

"Women artists still have relatively fewer opportunities to showcase their works at art museums and galleries, and few group exhibitions focus on female topics," Zhu says.

"Only by constantly exhibiting works by female artists and writing about these artworks, can they be known by more people and be written into art history."

The exhibition, which runs until March 28, features installations, videos, paintings, performance and textile works by 17 female artists.

According to Zhu, the title Metaphor and Gaze is about artists expressing women's real desires, conundrums, confusion and anxieties from different levels and perspectives, and exploring the love, healing and growth shared by humans.