Arcadia University Art Gallery presents

“Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn” (Ceramic Works, 5000 BCE* - 2010 CE) February 24 - April 18, 2010

Opening Event: Wednesday, March 3, 6:30 p.m. "Under the Hammer", Dr. Charles Merewether, art historian, curator, and writer This in-depth survey of Ai Weiwei's practice will examine the role his ceramic work has played in its development and significance. Arcadia's Little Theatre (directly adjacent to the gallery.) Public reception immediately following.     Ai Weiwei, Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995 second image from a triptych of gelatin silver prints, each 126 x 110.   Featuring a selection of works ranging from 1993 to the present, "Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn" offers a focused look at this Beijing-based artist's iconoclastic exploration of Chinese ceramics. Ai's gestural practice of defacing and destroying historic clay pots and appropriating blue-and-white porcelain vases has become critical to understanding a career that has evolved to incorporate sculpture, installation, photography, video, performance, and architecture, as well as curating and activism. All the work on view—from 7,000-year-old earthenware urns dipped in industrial paint to pieces replicating natural forms—is distinguished by a paradoxical investment in the Chinese clay vessel, a legacy whose values and significations it both questions and transcends. Considered together, the works show Ai working through the dynastic progression of Chinese ceramics to reconcile the formal, material logic and socio-political commentary that give his work its unique mixture of gravity and wit. Timed to coincide with the spring 2010 conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts to be held in Philadelphia (March 31 to April 3), "Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn" is the first solo exhibition by the artist to be presented outside of New York City in the United States. MORE INFORMATION About the Exhibition About the Arcadia University Art Gallery Directions to Arcadia University About Arts@Arcadia Join our e-mail list "Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn" has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.   * "Before Common Era", a non-religious alternative to the use of B.C.

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