Suzie Synnott, Animator
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Suzie Synnott is a visual artist living in Montréal. She holds a Master’s degree in Studio Arts from Concordia University. She has created and directed several traditional and digital animation films and video installations. Her experimental work combines diverse techniques including sculpture, drawing, photography, stop motion, pixilation and image processing. Over the past twenty-five years, her work has evolved through digital media.
Xu Bing, Square-Word Calligraphy
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Xu Bing was born in Chongqing, China in 1955. In 1977 he entered the printmaking department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (CAFA) where he completed his bachelor’s degree in 1981 and stayed on as an instructor, earning his MFA in 1987. In 1990, at the invitation of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he moved to the United States. He eventually settled in Brooklyn where he still maintains a studio.
In 1999, Xu Bing was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of his “capacity to contribute importantly to society, particularly in printmaking and calligraphy.” In 2003 Xu Bing was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize, and in 2004 he won the first Wales International Visual Art Prize, Artes Mundi. In 2006, the Southern Graphics Council awarded Xu Bing their lifetime achievement award in recognition of the fact that his, “use of text, language and books has impacted the dialogue of the print and art worlds in significant ways.”
He was awarded Doctor of Humane Letters by Columbia University in 2010. In 2015, he was awarded the 2014 Department of State-Medal of Arts for his efforts to promote cultural understanding through his artworks. He was appointed A.D. White Professors-at-large by Cornell University in April 2015.
Xu returned to China on a permanent basis in 2008 when he was appointed Vice President of CAFA. He served in that capacity until 2014 and is now Professor at CAFA, advising PHD students. He currently lives and works in Beijing and New York. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington DC; the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; the British Museum, London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, amongst other major institutions. www.xubing.com