Charlotte Schleiffert

Charlotte Schleiffert presents a series of large drawings of high-heeled, smoking and hirsute women, some paintings of Chinese 'hip-hop chicks' and politically oriented collages created in satin. This is her second solo exhibition at Galerie Akinci of the art she created during her stay in China. Since 2003, Charlotte Schleiffert has lived and worked in Xiamen, a coastal town in southern China. Three years ago, she was invited by the Chinese European Art Centre in Xiamen to attend an exhibition and also to work for 3 months in China; she has stayed there ever since!

These days, many western artists travel to China in order to work there for a certain period. China is experiencing a boom and is extremely popular, both economically and artistically. However, Schleiffert considers that this growth is greatly overrated and it only benefits a number of big cities. In the countryside, there is still enormous poverty and developments in contemporary art come only with difficulty. Furthermore, it is subject to censorship. After staying at the Art Centre, Schleiffert looked for a studio of her own in Xiamen. She now lives among the Chinese community. Concerning this, she says: “You live in something of a vacuum when you live in a country where you cannot read or speak the language and you cannot communicate. Those things that you do pick up on become so much more important.” In her work, Schleiffert makes abundant use of the (scanty) sources that are available there, such as English language newspapers, books about Chinese culture and her conversations and encounters.

She mixes western and oriental themes, for example hip-hoppers with Buddha images or over-pale Chinese girls who base their looks on the still prevailing western, white ideal of beauty. The theme of ‘woman’ is also represented ambiguously in her work: both high-heeled and hirsute. A new technique she introduces takes the form of collages in satin, which she regards as a different approach to painting. They are inspired by magazine articles about political issues in China and by her personal experiences as a western person living in China.

Charlotte Schleiffert (born in Tilburg in 1967) trained at Ateliers ’63 in Haarlem (1990-1992). In 2004, she presented an extremely successful exhibition, Feel No Shame, at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam. This year, her exhibitions include solo shows at Kunstverein Glückstadt in Germany (11 June – 13 August 2006) and Galerie Barbara Gross in Munich.

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Charlotte Schleiffert