with essays by Christine Mehring and Trevor Smith and additional entries by Susanna Ferrell, Wan Kong, Simone Levine, and Nancy P. Lin
From the 1980s, many Chinese artists have experimented with a range of unconventional materials. Their works—in plastic, paper, silk, ash, and tobacco—form a major trend in Chinese art.
Accompanying an exhibition of the same name, The Allure of Matter offers the first serious consideration of these ground-breaking material explorations, coining the term Material Art to describe works that place “matter” itself as the primary vehicle of investigation and expression. The book contains four ground-breaking essays, profiles of twenty-five artists, and corresponding color images.