DELORENZO GALLERY PRESENTS: CONVERSATIONS ON DESIGN with MICHAEL CHOW

MODERATED BY DANIELLA OHAD

Michael Chow

Zhou Yinghua was born in 1939 into a family of theater in Shanghai, China. His father Zhou Xinfang, the grandmaster of Beijing Opera, is regarded as a national treasure to this day. In his early years, Yinghua developed a passion for Beijing Opera, particularly the creativity and spontaneity which he inherited from his father, and he dreamed of following in his footsteps but this was not his fate.

At the age of 13, he was uprooted to London, England. He lost everything familiar, even his name. Alone in an alien world, he turned to painting. In 1956, he studied at Saint Martin’s School of Arts and the following year at the Hammersmith School of Building and Architecture. After painting vigorously for the next decade, despite one-man and mixed show exhibitions, Michael felt a lack of support.

To fulfill his void and loss of identity, he appointed himself as a cultural ambassador to bridge the East to the West. He founded his first restaurant, MR CHOW, in 1968, in Knightsbridge, London. Passionately promoting the greatness of China, Michael orchestrates art, architecture, design and cuisine into a participatory theater.

After a fifty-year radical sabbatical, Michael re-ignited his passion for painting. In 2015, his solo show “Voice For My Father” exhibited at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, China, followed by Power Station Museum in Shanghai, China. Now on view at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, “Voice For My Father” was conceived as an homage to his father, this exhibition sets him center stage as creative master.

DeLorenzo Gallery

DeLorenzo Gallery has an international reputation in the field of 20th Century Decorative Arts and has been a dominant and determining force as the market has matured and come into favor. Over its three decade existence, DeLorenzo has both acquired and sold pieces for record-breaking prices. The gallery’s expertise is sought by collectors, dealers, auction houses, museums, curators, authors, appraisers, and historians worldwide.

Anthony DeLorenzo opened DeLorenzo Gallery in 1980 on Madison Avenue on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Having had the foresight to see the potential for the market, Mr. DeLorenzo was one of the first dealers to introduce French Art Deco to the American public and is credited with being instrumental in making the market for 20th Century Decorative Arts what it is today.

Adriana Friedman, the director for the past twenty-three years, and the staff at DeLorenzo Gallery provide clients with the superlative level of service and expertise that has become DeLorenzo Gallery’s trademark.

Adriana Friedman started her career in 1983 with Mr. Anthony DeLorenzo and became the director of DeLorenzo Gallery on Madison Avenue in 1987. She is responsible for both acquisitions and sales. She is considered an industry expert and leading dealer of 20th Century Decorative Arts. She is an advisor to private collectors, industry-leading decorators, and museums in the United States and abroad. Her own home is decorated with furnishings and objets d'art ranging from American Arts and Crafts to Contemporary.

Daniella Ohad

Daniella Ohad received her Ph.D. degree from the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture. For the past two decades, she has been committed to education in design history, theory, decorative arts, and collecting. Now she teaches at the New York School of Interior Design and regularly conducts and curates public lectures, moderates panels, and speaks in academic conferences. She publishes in both scientific journals and popular magazines on topics related to design and material culture. As an art adviser, she has assembled distinctive private collections of twentieth-century furniture and decorative arts. Ms. Ohad takes part in the museums arena as a member of several acquisition committees of major museums in New York City.

DeLorenzo Gallery Presents: Conversations on Design with Michael Chow