Widener Gallery

Located on the ground floor of Austin Arts Center,
Widener Gallery is free and open to public.

CURRENT EXHIBITION

Reshaping Tradition: Contemporary Explorations in East Asian Art

January 26–April 3, 2026  (Closed February 19-20 & March 16-20)

Reception: Thursday, February 5, 4:00–6:00 p.m.

Reshaping Tradition brings together five artists – Arnold Chang, Michel Cherney, Fung Ming Chip, Brandon Sadler, and Zhang Xiaoli – who explore diaspora by reimagining traditional East Asian art through global and modern perspectives.

The exhibited work includes painting, photography, calligraphy, ceramics, and graffiti, and often synthesizes more than one of these mediums. Through contemporary mediums and approaches, the artists acknowledge tradition while addressing themes of language, culture, and identity.

The included artists engage with the artistic inheritance of East Asia from diverse backgrounds and with varied approaches.

Arnold Chang is an Asian-American artist trained in New York by the classical Chinese painting master, C.C. Wang. His work honors foundations of Chinese literati ink painting while progressively reshaping its possibilities for a global context.

Michael Cherney is an American photographer and calligrapher who has lived in China throughout his adult life. His photographs bridge Chinese artistic traditions and contemporary photographic practices, presenting tradition as continuous and fluid.

Fung Ming Chip is a self-taught, Hong Kong-based calligrapher whose work reimagines shufa, the traditional means of writing Chinese calligraphy. Drawing on ideas of overcoming language barriers, he derives his invented script styles from distinctive reinventions of shufa’s basic materiality.

Brandon Sadler, an Atlanta-born artist, mixes Korean calligraphy, American graffiti and Japanese visual culture to engage with the visual complexities of cross-cultural identity. His work manipulates language, transforming written forms into visual rhythms and hybrid scripts.

Zhang Xiaoli is a painter born and trained in China and now living in Canada. Her images meld her background in biology and fine arts, combining scientific precision with the ideas of Classical painting.

By deconstructing language and landscape, identity and experience, history and place, these artists collectively revise traditional East Asian artistic practices for the present moment. They appropriate aspects of classical visuality to create contemporary reflections on identity, diaspora, and cultural inheritance. Their work mirrors the dynamic nature of traditions, which constantly adapt to our increasingly connected, global existence.

Reshaping Traditions is Widener Gallery’s first student-curated exhibition. During the 2025 fall semester, students in Associate Professor of Fine Arts Michael J. Hatch’s course, “Art History 205: East Asian Art, Now to 1850,” worked collaboratively to curate the show. A full-color catalog, designed and written by students and including essays and artist interviews, accompanies the exhibition.

Sponsored by the Art History Program and the Studio Arts Program.

Widener Gallery is free and open to the public.

Gallery Hours: Monday–Friday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., and by appointment.

For directions, click here.

For more information or to inquire about a tour, contact
Lisa Lynch, [email protected], 860-297-5237 Or
Tracy Quigley, [email protected], 860-297-5232

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