Leona Craig Art Opens First Foreign Run Art Gallery in Guangzhou, China

Online, August 24, 2010 (Newswire.com) - While Beijing likes to think that it is the center of the Chinese art world, and Shanghai lays its own claim, as a center of international culture, Guangdong (Canton), including Hong Kong, has been and still is a true major center of Chinese art, in a number of important ways. Indeed, although Beijing and the emperor often get the credit for beginning the modern era of Chinese art, which was marked by the intermingling of Western painting techniques with traditional Chinese, they only discovered Western art because Guangdong sent some along to the Qing emperor, in the 1700's, after it had been introduced, there. Two centuries later, when the last Qing emperor encouraged artists to further explore Western painting, in the early 1900's, several of those fathers of modern 20th century Chinese art, including Li Tie Fu and Lin Feng Mian, were also Cantonese, and their students returned to Guangdong to establish another beachhead of contemporary art at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art. Since then, the Academy has produced many other fine contemporary artists. Moreover, when contemporary Chinese art reemerged after the Cultural Revolution of Mao Zedong, it was Hong Kong and its international auction houses, not Beijing, which played a key roll in introducing that new wave of contemporary art to the rest of the world. Even the New York Times recently commented about the rise of the cultural movement, in Guangzhou, with a new Opera House and art museum nearing completion.

Thus, it is no wonder that Leona Craig Art chose Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, with its rich history of modern art, as the location for its gallery of contemporary Chinese art, in China. While others open galleries in the next new hot art districts, in Shanghai or Beijing, Leona Craig Art has quietly taken up residence in an understated, yet, utterly hip part of old Guangzhou. Moreover, when you come to visit Leona Craig's new art gallery, LC Yilang (Chinese for Art Gallery) on Gui Gang Three Road (Chinese pinyin: Gui Gang San Ma Lu), in Dongshan Kou, you don't just come for the art, in the gallery, but also for the art that is all around this hidden jewel of a district, in the center of this ancient Chinese town.

For the past several years, Leona Craig Art has been selling Chinese art around the world. Indeed, the focus of the Chinese art markets has always been outside of China, itself. On the one hand, the idea of home decoration is not so much a part of the present local culture, as it is in the West, but, as with many other Western trends, the Chinese are gradually catching on, and art and decoration will become more a part of modern China, as time goes on. On the other hand, although some people, in China, have been catching on to the value of art, the focus has been mainly on making money, like in stocks and real estate, instead of on the true value of art: the stories it tells and the way it makes you feel by including it as part of your home decoration. Craig Mattoli, the curator of the Leona Craig Art collection and the head of international sales, believes that his experience and his eye for art can help to guide and shape the local markets for art.

Mattoli has been collecting art of various sorts since grade school. He traded in American and European art and antiques from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries for several decades. After a career on Wall Street, in the 1980's, he opened one of the first "art inns", in a restored 18th century estate outside the artist colony of New Hope, in the U.S, in the 1990's,. His collection, decoration, and restoration skills won accolades for his art inn from major international magazines, and the inn was included in a number of books about decoration, style, and excellence. Thus, when he moved to China, in early 2005, to teach finance and economics at a university, one of the first things he did was to explore the local art market. He began with teapot art, and, as time went on, he discovered more and more forms of Chinese art, including contemporary oil painting, embroidery art, and sculpture. Eventually, he opened Leona Craig Art, an on-line gallery of contemporary Chinese art, which sells Chinese art around the world. Now, he believes that it is an appropriate time to ratchet up the awakening of local Chinese to the value of art and decoration, and, thus, he created this adorable local gallery.

He has an appreciation for the art of building, decoration, and restoration. "Prior to stumbling onto this section of Guangzhou, I was surprised to find that so many beautiful old buildings, in China, were left to crumble, while skyscrapers replace them. I was so pleased when I discovered this area." Mattoli says. "I immediately loved the area when I first saw it, and I knew that this was the place that I wanted to open a gallery. I was drawn to the bi-level loft spaces in this building, just off the main drag, and I love the more Bohemian atmosphere of this unassuming neighborhood: it reminds me of areas where I live and played, in other major cities in North America and Europe. Besides, to really understand the art of a people, you need to immerse yourself in the culture, not hide in some chic enclave, insulated from it." This particular part of the Dongshan Kou is known as the turtle's back because it is a on a hump, in the center of the area, and many have said that is has great Feng Sui.

The gallery will offer people an opportunity to experience modern oil paintings, sculpture, hand-embroidered pictures, and teapot art, in a comfortable atmosphere. Although the space is not huge, Mattoli says he liked it more for the artistry of its restoration than for its physical size. "As we become more popular, the building offers opportunity for the gallery to expand upward though it," Mattoli points out. The gallery will also offer a physical place for collectors and artists, alike, to find Leona Craig Art, in China, itself. "We've only begun to discover Chinese artists, and we'd like to discover more," Mattoli says. He also points out that, through the Leona Craig Art website, he can help artists reach a more international audience, and that, in addition to introducing their art to collectors, Leona Craig Art has already gotten some of its artists noticed by magazines, museums, and book publishers. Located on number 11 Gui Gang 3 Ma Lu, LC Yilang will be run by Ayu Chen.

Contact:
Ayu Chen, Guangzhou, China: 86 136 3240 7809
Craig Mattoli, Guangzhou, China: 86 136 3241 0877