Bold Works @ Red Gate Gallery
March 15th, 2025
The day before, I was on my way to the UCCA for a second look at Lumaida Himid’s show and I thought, I should swing by Red Gate Gallery. The week before, I’d meant to go with my sister during her spring break trip to Beijing, but we’d missed them. That Thursday, they decided to close early so I said I’d come back the following day and I’m happy I did.
With the impression, I would miss them once more it was the first stop on a three gallery tour last Friday that I was not expecting as I pulled up to the gallery in my taxi. A determinedly striking red face stared at me on the gallery’s billboard on its porch, below it reading Time Capsule. Vivid colors and mark making are the star of this group exhibition which showcases photography, mixed media, digital prints, traditional Chinese stone paintings and oil paintings and the current scene of Tibetan art from the personal collection of Red Gate Gallery owner, Brian Wallace. All artists in the show have also made quite a name for themselves, as most referenced in well used texts about current Tibetan art including Lhasa — New Art From Tibet, (2007) Return to Lhasa (2008), and Tibet Now (2018).
I can say that the curation of the show has great execution, all of the works have a certain flow between them that emphasize the vigor of the Tibetan people, an experimental nature that is solemn and culturally influenced by Western industry as well. Wallace’s collection includes Tibetan artists, Gonkar Gyatso, Gade, Keltse, Tsering Nyandak and Yak Tsetan, Tsewang Tashi, and Norbu Tsering.
Gade, Ice Buddha - Lhasa River 冰佛 - 拉萨河 , Digital C - Print, 2006
As an enthusiast of the ephemeral, I was drawn to photos capturing an ice sculpture of the Buddha melting in a lake near the Lhasa Temple, the Holy Land of Buddha for Tibetans. Two frames of Gade’s Ice Buddha eight photo series are on display which show the sculpture melting but not completely in frame or disappeared. Time lapses like this make me wonder if Gade is having a conversation of the Buddhist belief in letting things exist and go as they naturally should within this is the larger principle of letting go, a powerful representation on allowing what will be to be.
On the left wall of the gallery, what also seems to be the spines of a collection of worn tattered books, actually isn’t. They are all hand made paper that together make up the tale of current humanity. Each strip sharing religious symbols, currency icons, global corporation logos, and and trees sharing the Buddha, Chinese ancient coins, and Christmas mixed with nature. A simple way of communicating how globalism has reached Tibet and industry has not only affected Tibetan world culture as immersed in their own, but that they coexist now. We see this once again in Keltse’s series of collaged digital prints encased in and surrounding the outline of yaks. The two prints displayed of yet another eight work series, depict Western images of clowns, presents, currency symbols, presents with the other in a leerily green backdrop, digital code language with ones and zeros throughout and a green, yellow, red, and black color scheme of the old Microsoft logo. The yak being a native animal to Tibet contrasted with the foreign aspects of the West make for another intriguing account of how exactly Tibetans see industry, globalism, and the intermingling of their culture and the larger world.
This is not Red Gate’s first show on Tibetan art, making a space for Tibetan artists their style and way of life in Beijing’s art market yet again.
Contrasting the prior show, you won’t find any sculptures here, but the multicultural tale of how globalism has effected Tibetan culture, how the environment makes its way into every aspect of their life; including their tan, and the emphasis on the yak and spirituality in their everyday lives feeds through this collection within a collection. Brian Wallace has done it again, making us all aware of what else lies beyond the walls of China and what other lands are fostering contemporary work on the periphery.
Time Capsule is on view through April 20th.
