Overview
Starting November 21, 2026, He Art Museum presents “A Wind Across a Thousand Miles: Gu Gan’s Dialogue with Eastern and Western Art,” a major exhibition on Gu Gan, a pioneer of Chinese modern calligraphy. Taking Chinese characters as his foundation, Gu Gan explored the visual structures and spiritual meanings behind writing, turning calligraphy into an abstract space. The exhibition brings together representative works from every stage of his career, tracing his path from traditional to contemporary. Alongside his works, it presents those of 20th-century Chinese masters—Zao Wou-Ki, Lin Fengmian, Li Keran, Wu Guanzhong—as well as Western artists Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, among others, opening a dialogue that transcends boundaries.
The exhibition unfolds in three units. “From Character to Form” focuses on the 1980s, when Gu Gan dismantled and reassembled character strokes while retaining their essential skeleton. “From Form to Heart” enters the 1990s, where he sought the possibilities of painting within calligraphy. “From Heart to Image” showcases his later years, in which he transcended specific character forms and transformed calligraphic experience, cultural memory, and Eastern thought into more open spiritual imagery.
Two extensions of Gu Gan’s practice are also on view. While working as an art editor at People’s Literature Publishing House, he contributed illustrations to literary works—in those figures and lines already lay the consciousness of his later abstract art. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he transformed the strength, speed, and rhythm of movement into calligraphic lines. The exhibition also features his Heart to Heart series—“heart” characters in different colors interlocking, symbolizing people across regions moving forward together, a vision of harmony in diversity.
A thousand miles away, a wind rises from the Xiang River; beyond the horizon, it sweeps along the Seine and the Hudson, and finally returns to the banks of the Pearl River—where the negative space of Eastern ink meets the impasto of Western oil, illuminating each other. The exhibition pays tribute to Gu Gan, and to every encounter that crosses mountains and seas.
Exhibition Information
Title: A Wind Across a Thousand Miles: Gu Gan’s Dialogue with Eastern and Western Art
Dates: November 21, 2026 - March 7, 2027
Venue: He Art Museum
Opening Hours: Monday–Sunday, 10:00–18:00 (last admission at 17:30)
About HEM
Located in Shunde, Foshan, Guangdong, He Art Museum (HEM) is a non-profit private art museum, focusing on modern and contemporary culture and art with an international scope. As one of the first pet-friendly museums in China, HEM is dedicated to integrating art into the daily lives of community members, aiming to create an open and inclusive community art museum.
Follow He Art Museum
WeChat: 和美术馆 HEM Weibo: 和美术馆 HEM
rednote：HEM 和美术馆 Instagram：@hemartmuseum
Website: http://hem.org/ Press Inquiries: press@hem.org
The exhibition unfolds in three units. “From Character to Form” focuses on the 1980s, when Gu Gan dismantled and reassembled character strokes while retaining their essential skeleton. “From Form to Heart” enters the 1990s, where he sought the possibilities of painting within calligraphy. “From Heart to Image” showcases his later years, in which he transcended specific character forms and transformed calligraphic experience, cultural memory, and Eastern thought into more open spiritual imagery.
Two extensions of Gu Gan’s practice are also on view. While working as an art editor at People’s Literature Publishing House, he contributed illustrations to literary works—in those figures and lines already lay the consciousness of his later abstract art. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he transformed the strength, speed, and rhythm of movement into calligraphic lines. The exhibition also features his Heart to Heart series—“heart” characters in different colors interlocking, symbolizing people across regions moving forward together, a vision of harmony in diversity.
A thousand miles away, a wind rises from the Xiang River; beyond the horizon, it sweeps along the Seine and the Hudson, and finally returns to the banks of the Pearl River—where the negative space of Eastern ink meets the impasto of Western oil, illuminating each other. The exhibition pays tribute to Gu Gan, and to every encounter that crosses mountains and seas.
Exhibition Information
Title: A Wind Across a Thousand Miles: Gu Gan’s Dialogue with Eastern and Western Art
Dates: November 21, 2026 - March 7, 2027
Venue: He Art Museum
Opening Hours: Monday–Sunday, 10:00–18:00 (last admission at 17:30)
About HEM
Located in Shunde, Foshan, Guangdong, He Art Museum (HEM) is a non-profit private art museum, focusing on modern and contemporary culture and art with an international scope. As one of the first pet-friendly museums in China, HEM is dedicated to integrating art into the daily lives of community members, aiming to create an open and inclusive community art museum.
Follow He Art Museum
WeChat: 和美术馆 HEM Weibo: 和美术馆 HEM
rednote：HEM 和美术馆 Instagram：@hemartmuseum
Website: http://hem.org/ Press Inquiries: press@hem.org