American Jeff Crosby hopes more Yunnan artists to go global

Since he came to Kunming in the year of 2000, Jeff Crosby from the United States has been working to communicate and promote contemporary culture and art in Yunnan.

Jeff first came to Kunming through a study program run by the University of Vermont, which included six months of Chinese language courses at Yunnan University. He fell in love with Yunnan after hanging out in the artistic cafes in the Wenhua Lane which is near Yunnan University. Later, he visited Dali where he met many charming artists, writers and filmmakers. The desire to communicate with these people pushed him to study Chinese harder.

Jeff did other jobs after graduation, but only enjoyed the ones associated with art. In 2008, he started his own company in Kunming, providing translation services for Chinese artists.

After years of accumulation in the field of art, Jeff gained a new title this year—the curator of the exhibition “Notes on Region” held at the Contemporary Gallery Kunming(CGK) when the gallery was first opened to public this March.

He said that Kunming has fostered a lot of good artists but it is lack of professional contemporary art institutions. He hopes to leverage the platform of CGK to bring in more international art events to Kunming, and to introduce more Yunnan artists to the world. 

Editor: Wang Shixue