Time: Session one: Saturday,  February 17th, 2024, 1:00 pm - 2: 30 pm

              Session two: Saturday,  February 17th, 2024, 4:00 pm - 5: 30 pm

              Session three: Saturday, February 24th, 2024, 1:00 pm - 2: 30 pm

              Session four: Saturday, February 24th, 2024, 4:00 pm - 5: 30 pm

Location: Fou Gallery, 410 Jefferson Avenue, #1, Brooklyn, New York, NY 11221

Aritist: Ruth Borgenicht & Gong Mengyan

Capacity:  12 People per session

Ticket Fee: $30 per person

NEW YORK—Fou Gallery sincerely invites you to a special event Tea Alchemy: An Experimental Tea Ceremony. In this event, you will participate in an interactive experience that merges the tradition of the Chinese tea ceremony with the concept of communal dining. Under the guidance of tea artist Gong Mengyan, participants will use teawares specially created for this event by multidisciplinary artist Ruth Borgenicht, reinterpreting traditional tea-tasting methods and reflecting the spirit of the Chinese tea ceremony. This event also marks the closing of Fou Gallery’s tenth-anniversary exhibition Take a Break, bringing about a perfect ending.

Artist Ruth Borgenicht designed and created a set of unique teawares for this event in collaboration with tea artist Gong Mengyan and inspired by the Chinese literati’s view of nature and the concept of communal dining. Two aspects are particularly noteworthy: firstly, Ruth drew inspiration from the spirit of Chinese landscapes to craft tea cups reminiscent of natural rocks and stones. These cups are designed with rounded bottoms, which necessitate constant holding to contain the tea, thus encouraging guests to focus on the experience of tasting  and being present. Secondly, the wares for sharing tea snacks, rather than being  individual plates, are connected pairs of organic shapes. This design naturally requires the guests to break away from traditional individual dining, to coordinate amongst each other to taste the tea snacks, adding an interactive fun element.

Tea artist Gong Mengyan has also prepared a Chaxi 茶席 (tea stage) full of deep meaning. In this event, Mengyan and guests will sit on the wooden floor of the gallery’s exhibition space. The design of the Chaxi is inspired by the literati game of “Winding Stream Party 曲水流觴,” popular during the Wei and Jin dynasties (220–589 A.D.), where participants would sit along the banks of a stream, float wine cups downstream, and whoever the cup stopped in front of would drink and compose poetry. Today, we replace wine with tea to share the exquisite flavors. Additionally, Mengyan has specially selected two types of Wuyi Rock Tea produced in 2002 and 2022 for this tea ceremony. The aged and new teas complement each other perfectly, echoing Fou Gallery’s ten-year journey.

Gong Mengyan presenting  a tea ceremony event at Fou Gallery. Photography by Weili Shi.

The 10-year anniversary exhibition Take a Break encapsulates a decade of Fou Gallery’s artistic exploration. It highlights the distinctive perspectives crafted by artists, bridging individual creative concepts and our collective memory. This foundational spirit persists in Tea Alchemy: An Experimental Tea Ceremony. This event provides a glimpse into an experimental tea ceremony and embodies a harmonious blend of individuality and communality, classical and modern influences, as well as tranquility and resonance.

Read introduction in Chinese >>

Special Guest Artists

Ruth Borgenicht

Ruth Borgenicht is an artist who uses clay as her creative medium, and her ceramic works are collected in numerous public and private collections. Holding a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Rutgers University and a Master of Fine Arts from Montclair State University, she has received two New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowships, a Sustainable Arts Foundation award, and several artist residencies. Her works are in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Sèvres Museum in Paris, the Ariana Museum in Geneva and  the Delaware Art Museum. She has exhibited widely in the United States and internationally, including the Sejong City International Craft Biennale in Korea, the Luo Zhongli Museum of Fine Arts at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing, China, and the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza, Italy.

Gong Mengyan

Gong Mengyan, a tea artist, pursued in-depth studies of Chinese tea culture after earning her Ph.D. from Tsinghua University in 2015, apprenticing under the highly innovative tea master Li Shuyun. Mengyan has collaborated with arts and culture institutions in New York to host numerous tea gatherings and educational events. In 2023, she founded the Teasthetic studio, with a mission to spread the tradition of Chinese tea art and culture in a modern and innovative manner by drawing inspiration from contemporary life and art.

Event Planner

Iris Zhang holds a Bachelor's degree in Finance from China and a Master's degree in Arts and Culture Management from Pratt Institute in New York. Her experience includes organizing various independent music performances and large-scale music festivals in China, including West Lake Music Festival and East Sea Music Festival. She participated in the production of the independent film End of Summer (2017), which was recognized with the KNN award at the 22nd Busan International Film Festival. She has also worked for exchange exhibitions She Says, Her Story (Washington D.C., 2021), Fluid Boundaries: Four Artists from the Pan-Austro-Nesian Arts Festival (Washington D.C., 2022), and Hsin-Chien Huang: The Data We Called Home (New York, 2022). Qi is currently a partner and the Director of Communication and Special Events at Fou Gallery in New York. Her focus is on bringing diverse art forms to the gallery's community. She has designed and coordinated numerous special events, such as The Continuum of Migration: Improvised Music by Che Chen, 16mm Film Loops Workshop, and Mycology on Fire: Mushroom Cultures to Cultivation.

Event Photos

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