Foster Eastman Gallery

If you’re interested in contemporary China or protest art, you may be interested in the
this gallery: Mao; Contemporary Works on the Cultural Revolution (Aug 17-​Dec 8). Go to
and click on Gallery.
When I arrived at the gallery, a small white bull dog greeted me carrying a toy wanting me to play. Otherwise the gallery was deserted. There was a work in progress on the desk: a painting of Mao’s face on a background of pages torn from Mao’s Red Books and glued to the canvas. The artist was evidently in the process of rubbing off some of the print and paint so that the portrait seemed to be decaying.
Mr. Eastman soon arrived, a friendly, fit and energetic man; tall dark and handsome, with a message to convey and knowledgeable about his subject — the first several decades of Mao’s Chinese Communist Party’s control over mainland China. He took time to give me the gallery tour, explaining nearly every work along with his opinions about the CCP régime. It was refreshing to meet a gallery owner so interested in educating visitors in his point of view and willing to take the time to do it.
In homage to Ai Wei-​wei, the Chinese dissident artist, Mr. Eastman has photographs from the video on his website showing him in a gas mask (a reference to China’s high rate of industrial pollution) dropping a ceramic bust of Mao so that it breaks into pieces. Ai Wei-​wei broke what he called, I believe, a Ming vase in the same way protesting the destruction of China’s cultural heritage by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. Mr. Eastman then used the shards to make a collage with the Canadian PM’s face looking out through the debris. That reference escaped me.
Some works, like Chocolate Mao and Jiang Qing (Mao’s wife) could be viewed as monuments designed, as they are, with silk-​screen style faces painted over cut out pages of their writings. But others, like Land Reform and Death by 1000 Cuts attempt to convey the ruthlessness of Mao’s Stalinist policies and his treatment of enemies.
The artist is also protesting the US-​led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with constructions like Red Maple Leaf IED and Lest We Forget, some of which have actual explosive devices in the back of the works. Mr. Eastman made several works by using controlled explosions, with the help of a explosive expert, to splatter and tear or imbed nails in the canvases.
The works are very well made, the acrylic finishes high quality, but none are for sale although a few will be traveling to other galleries in the near future. Mr. Eastman bemoans the fact that there are few if any art critics in Vancouver and, except for the Huffington interview (see below) his show had not been reviewed locally by the time I saw it (Sept 2013).
There is an extended interview with Mr. Eastman by Hadani Ditmars at the Huffington Post website. The interview is also posted on the gallery’s website.