B.R. Gallery

B.R. Gallery (Yunnan) was founded in 2019. It is located at the Dali traditional crafts workstation Heqing base in Heqing, Dali. Since its foundation, B.R. Gallery has become a bridge between traditional handicrafts and contemporary context, local culture and globalization, intangible cultural heritage practice and education, and academic and industrial. It plays five key roles: spatial, platform, experimental, international, and educational.

In 2021, in response to the rapid growth demand of space and the international development goal, B.R. Gallery (Beijing) was officially established in the East of Today Art Museum Building No.2, Pingod Community, No.32 Baiziwan Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing. BR gallery’s ambition is to be an international platform for all metal artists, and we will continue bridging Chinese and Western culture of craftsmanship, encouraging artists’ creative and experimental practice to recalibrate the identity of objects surrounding us in the contemporary context. The residential artists' program welcomes excellent metal artists to go to Heqing to develop their research, make their work and exhibit the work at BR gallery.

Past exhibitions and projects:
- Connecting: the concept of beauty
B.R. Gallery has represented many top artists in the field of international metal art, and has carried out projects such as artist residence, product development, etc. It has held international exhibitions and academic projects by using the rich academic and industrial resources in the field of art at home and abroad. In 2018, the exhibition "connecting - the concept of beauty" presents the works of seven metal and jewelry artists from the UK, who are active at the forefront of the international arena. This exhibition shows the diversity and connectivity of contemporary British creation practice: the deep connection between Western tradition and contemporary context, and the internal connection of seven artists with different styles in their creative methods. At the same time, B.R. Gallery space also hoped that the exhibition can build a long-term relationship between Chinese and Western metal art.
 
- Training course for young creative talents of talent center of Ministry of culture and Tourism
B.R. Gallery has important academic resources in the field of international applied art. Its partners include: Royal College of Art, Sheffield Hallam University, The Goldsmith's Company, China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University, Nanjing University of the Arts, Yunnan Arts University, Beijing International Design Week, and HRC of China Ministry of Culture and Tourism, etc. It is committed to passing intangible cultural heritage and contemporary handicraft concepts through education programs. The aim is to spread to the public and provide a comprehensive perspective of appreciation, reading, understanding, and feedback of traditional and contemporary handicrafts. On October 12-18, 2019, B.R. Gallery hosted the "Training course for young creative designers (jewelry and metal art)" of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2019, which was successfully completed in Heqing base of Dali traditional crafts workstation. The trainees include Chinese university teachers, enterprise representatives, inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, and other creative industry educators and practitioners.
 
- Metal Narrative --- International Metal Art Exhibition
Metal Narrative --- International Metal Art Exhibition held by BR Gallery and NEW CRAFTS (society sponsored by Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University for excellent Chinese metal artists) has come to a successful termination. The exhibition was co-curated by Sally Li, director of BR Gallery and Sheffield Hallam University Beijing Office, and Xiaoxin Wang, professor, and host of metal art in Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University. Hui Zeng, director of Beijing International Design Week and nationally renowned designer and curator acted as the Academic Chair. The exhibition was an essential part of Beijing International Design Week and took place in the World Art Museum of China Millennium Monument from September 20^th to October 7^th, which is the first commonweal cultural institution for art collections, exhibitions, research in China. According to the statistic in 2018, Beijing Design Week attracted over 8 million visitors and 150 million online audiences.
 
During this particular time of global crisis, we were privileged to have 13 artists from the United Kingdom and Korea, and over 30 artists from China to present their artworks including well-experienced professors from renowned Chinese academic institutions and young talented artists who have resulted in a significant body of experimental practice in Chinese creative industry that challenges the conventional boundaries of contemporary jewellery and metalwork. The main theme of the exhibition is to discuss jewellery and metal art through the perspectives of both synchronicity and continuity, reflecting the discrepancy and resonance of multi-culture in a context of globalization and dynamic relationship between traditional and contemporary material culture. Through displaying artworks from eastern and western cultures, the exhibition celebrated traditional craftsmanship within a contemporary context, which included investigating the message of the medium of traditional craft and how it engages with the contemporary concepts and propositions that relate to semiotics, narratives, and diversified cultural values in the object-making process. The exhibition has reverberated across the academic community, the creative industry, and the public audience.
 
- The Metal Narrative Young Talented Artists Forum
The Metal Narrative Young Talented Artists Forum was held on the 2nd of October. Chong Shi, BR Gallery’s art consultant, co-founder of YDMD Studio, and member of the expert database in HRC of China Ministry of Culture and Tourism was the host of the forum. The symposium began with a speech from Zeng Hui, Academic Chair for both the exhibition and forum. Hui stated that Beijing International Design Week being a national platform for the design industry, which is co-sponsored by the cooperative partner with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Beijing Government, is more than willing to join hands with excellent academic exhibitions like Metal Narrative to propagate and promote craft art into the modern lifestyle. The forum invited five contemporary young talented artists who participated in the exhibition to share their intelligential thinking process in producing their works, embodying the diversification of the art languages in contemporary metal. Metal Narrative exhibition has successfully displayed the diversity of contemporary metal and jewellery art through both cultural and functional aspects that embodied academic research achievements and supported an effective method of understanding contemporary craft to the public.

- Numberless Hammers’ Thuds Creating Shining Artworks and Presenting Refined Artworks Exhibition at Prince’s Kung Museum of China Ministry of Culture and Tourism
Numberless Hammers’ Thuds Creating Shining Artworks and Presenting Refined Artworks Exhibition was held by Prince’s Kung Museum of China Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Yunnan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism from October 9^th to November 9^th. The exhibition focused on the relationship of craftsmanship and object, presenting both technical processes of traditional craft and finished artworks, which highlights intangible cultural heritage implied by craft objects. BR Gallery brought represented Chinese and international artists’ works to attend the exhibition.