To encourage the development of emerging young artists, Hong Kong’s K11 Art Foundation and the Central Academy of Fine Arts have launched a three-year partnership. Through this investigation, they hope to cultivate future models for exhibiting art. The collaboration began on January 15 with the opening of The 2nd “CAFAM Future” Exhibition, a joint effort…

Dear Editor, Thank you very much for sending the interview with Zheng Shengtian for the studio’s reference—the article offers a conscientious review of the experiences of many Chinese artists in America over the past decades. It bears a lot for domestic art circles to contemplate, and will most likely exert a long-term influence. However, while…

The division between Liberalism and the New Left that emerged in the mid-to-late 1990s polarized the Chinese intellectual world. Adherents of Liberalism, guided by the theories of free markets and constitutional democracy put forth by Friedrich August von Hayek and Milton Friedman, argue that China’s key challenges are returning power to the markets and combating…

The all-new large-scale exhibition project “Local Futures: The Culture China Young Overseas Chinese Invitational Exhibition,” held at the He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen, is organized with the sup…

THE EVERYDAY AND THE CORE—LlN XUE’S UNTITLED DRAWINGS Lin Xue (b. 1968) achieved instant fame when his work was shown at the
 55th Venice Biennale this year. Curator Massimiliano Gioni had invited Lin
to participate in “Il Palazzo Enciclopedico.” Prior to the show, no more than a thousand people had seen Lin’s work or had heard…

Hu Yun is neat and self-controlled, calm and collected. He seems to be the antithesis of a madman, yet he uses Foucault’s notion of “the ship of fools” to explain his practice. In the Middle Ages, people would use these endless maritime voyages to exile madmen, in part to restore the peace, and in part…

HISTORY LESSONS: REFLECTIONS ON OCAT PUBLISHING ALTERNATIVES TO RITUAL: A CASE STUDY OF SHENZHEN OCT CONTEMPORARY ART TERMINAL On January 26, two exhibitions opened to mark OCAT’s eighth anniversary: “History Lessons: Reflections on OCAT Publishing,” curated by Fang Lihua and Li Rongwei, and “Alternatives to Ritual: A Case Study of Shenzhen OCT Contemporary Art Terminal,”…

In years past, the work of Liu Shiyuan (b. 1985) has allowed itself to wear many loose-fitting forms. She has held a bar of wet soap in her hands for a prolonged period (One Day With A Soap, 2011); “directed” a “play” (Secondhand Stabilization, 2011); filmed the interactions between actors she has prompted but who…

THE YOUNG ARTIST Li Ran (born 1986) is able to eloquently delineate nearly every facet of his burgeoning artistic practice. This should come as no surprise: in the last two years, his work, through the lens of video, has come to hinge almost entirely on the spoken word and the collation of written text. Li’s…

Indonesian Chinese Budi Tek has lived in China for 17 years. Here he is mostly known for being a collector of contemporary Chinese art. But it is his recent decision to open an art museum in Shanghai that has further triggered LEAP’s interest in this figure. In the beginning of September, we interviewed him in…

This is a real back garden, a place of exile, a place to seek refuge, a place for the recluse. Here is a living, breathing specimen of history and nature— on this piece of land, a complex mixture of past and present, a Naxi Village where a movement in words and language is now taking…

The process of urbanization and the expansion of cities have created economic and physical spaces where urban and rural characteristics mingle together. Various land uses and administrative systems come together at what is known as the urban-rural fringe. In fact, we (the Urban Rural Fringe Group) are not concerned with the aesthetic, political, and everyday…

ARTISTIC PRODUCTION IN THE POST-HISTORY AGE: HOW IS ART POSSIBLE AMIDST THE SOCIAL REALITIES OF TODAY? DATE: 8.23-25 VENUE: Guangdong Times Museum PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: Duan Jianyu, He An, Collin Chinnery, Wang Wei, Wang Yin, Zhang Hui, Zan Jbai, Zhu Yu OBSERVER: Zheng Hongbin “Pulse Reaction—An Exchange Project on Art Practice” at Guangdong Times Museum aims…

Since giving up the expressionist flairs of academic painting 15 years ago, Liu Wei’s art has evolved. Regardless of subject matter or theme, the mediums used in his work, or the topic he chooses— whether the alienation of individuals or the empathetic identification with others— his art expresses the suppression of individualism and the emergence…

Compared to his “Cola Project” and “Man on the Chairs,” He Xiangyu’s newest solo exhibition presents the persona of a big kid born in 1986: one who loves collecting objets d’art but does not feel obligated toward historical cultural heritage; one who is not a bit serious but rather carefree; and one who shows aptitude…

After the success of “Super-Organism,” the Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum (CAFAM) organized “Sub-Phenomena—Report on the State of Chinese Young Art.” Mounting such an exhibition at this time reflects the awareness of the curators in the face of changes and trends in the current context of the art industry. Considering recent actions and discussions…

“Kunshan—Under Construction,” an intervention-style research project marrying art and society, began in 2010. The project observes and investigates China’s New Countryside program of rural construction. The specific locale of the project is Kunshan New Village in Chengdu’s Shuangliu county.1 The multidimensional, integrated art intervention project has included field research, on-site creative projects, short-term themed workshops,…

It was on Saturday, August 25 that I set out to see the 18th Biennale of Sydney, “All Our Relations.” Coincidentally the day was to be shared with the passing of the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong. Though obviously unrelated, the fact remained present in my mind as I traversed the…

As a rural reconstruction project, the “Bishan Project” has major problems accessing funding. As can be seen from our current resources, going through art projects seems to be the best way to alleviate this problem. I curated the 2011 Chengdu Biennale, and so the Bishan Harvestival joined as part of it, and this way I…