February 14 – March 4, 2007

Washington, DC, January 16, 2007….A collection of contemporary art of the American West will tour China during 2007 in an exhibition organized by Meridian International Center in Washington, D.C., it was announced today. Meridian is collaborating on the new exhibit with the National Art Museum of China in Beijing and the Chinese Ministry of Culture.

Out West: The Great American Landscape includes 68 works by 50 American artists, depicting aspects of the American West. The “landscape” of the Western states, including Montana, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and Arizona, is interpreted in the broad sense to highlight the dramatic physical scenery of the western regions and its culture. Meridian has gathered work from museums, galleries, collectors, and individual artists. Among the well-known Western artists featured are Dana Boussard, Russell Chatham, William Matthews, Dan Namingha, Howard Post, Kevin Red Star, and Donna Howell-Sickles.

Out West completes a U.S.-China cultural exchange begun with Ancient Threads, Newly Woven, a Meridian exhibition focusing on China’s Western Silk Road regions, which is still on tour in the U.S. After a preview opening in mid-February, with the Chinese Ambassador in attendance, Out West will be on view at Meridian’s Galleries in Washington until March 4, 2007. The Chinese tour will begin at the National Art Museum in Beijing, where it will be officially opened in late March by top Chinese and U.S. officials. The subsequent tour will take the exhibition to the Silk Road cities of Urumqi and Xi’an, Shanghai, and additional venues.

“Meridian is pleased to have this opportunity to familiarize the Chinese people with the unique beauty and culture of our western United States. The development of China’s Western regions, and its challenges, parallels in many ways the growth in the last century of American’s vast Western spaces,” said Ambassador Stuart Holliday, President of Meridian International Center.

Major sponsors of Out West include American Airlines, Anheuser-Busch Companies, FedEx Corporation and Tyco International. The Chinese tour and catalogue publication are made possible by the National Art Museum of China.