In March this year, Randian reported that the Guggenheim museum in New York was to receive a USD$10 million grant from the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation to commission work from contemporary artists from Greater China. Thomas Berghuis is the curator appointed to orchestrate the commissions.
It has just been announced that Beijing-based conceptual artist Wang Jianwei will be the first artist to be commissioned. The working title of the piece is “Wang Jianwei: the Texture of Reality”. It will be exhibited in Autumn 2014 (Source: Artinfo).
These commissions – of which there will be at least two more by 2017 – are part of the Guggenheim’s Asian Art Program, initiated by Alexandra Munroe (Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art) in 2006. When “The Texture of Reality” is exhibited in New York, it will be Wang Jianwei’s first solo exhibition in North America.