“Made in China” wants to know—how much weight can three words carry?

This show asks that you bring any baggage these three words may carry, but please allow room for something new. The tongue-in-cheek title is intended to conjure the emblematic country-of-origin label, with all its Western-world connotations in tow.

Objective Gallery presents four Chinese-based and born artists- Hao Zhenhan, Matt Watterson, Ryan Mitchell and Xu Studio. Their work nods toward the country’s creative guardianship over ceramics, what is still referred to as “fine china” in many English-speaking countries. 

Measuring the distance from a legacy, to a label, to those working from inside and outside of traditional Chinese craft today. Porcelain Masters of the ceramic golden era would wait two years before even sharing their clay recipe with students. It is with this same reverence for technique that the artists of “Made in China” approach, honoring the past while shaping the present anew, creating something completely distinct. 

The past informs the future, just as the East informs the West and vice versa.

Come and see.

Photographs by Ian Ritter