New generation of experimental Chinese artists reflect a globalising world
Emerging generation of Chinese artists offer new materials and experimental styles, ditching the overtly political works of some of their predecessors
Global art icons Ai Weiwei and Zeng Fanzhi, step aside. Song Yige, Wang Yuyang, Song Ta and Zhang Ruyi are in the vanguard of young Chinese artists breaking with tradition and using new technologies wherever possible.
"We are used to associating Chinese artists with the Cultural Revolution and now the younger generation have a refreshed approach from their predecessors," says Alexander Platon, senior director at Marlborough Fine Art in London.
"Their ideology and their individual experiences are totally different to the previous generation, so their art is broad and not purely political, which brings them closer to practising artists from other parts of the world." This has resulted in a host of new materials and interesting experimental styles coming to the market. In time, Song, Wang and Zhang might become household names in the art cognoscenti world.
"Song Yige, a painter who works and lives in Beijing, had her first show outside Asia earlier this year at Marlborough Fine Art in London. The exhibition attracted enormous attention from international media and collectors throughout the West," Platon says. A show called "A Beautiful Disorder", at the Cass Sculpture Foundation in Britain, is another where the work of young Chinese artists is prominently displayed and lauded.
A handful of promising artists have caught the eye of industry experts such as Platon. These names include Wang (solo show at Long Museum in Shanghai and recent book by Flash Art), Jennifer Wen Ma (Paradise Interrupted at Lincoln Center Festival), Cao Fei (recent solo show at MoMA PS1) and Lu Pingyuan (Liverpool Biennial and Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art in Manchester).
Niru Ratnam, the director of START Art Fair - which is held at the Saatchi Gallery in London in September as a salute to emerging artists - thinks it is important to see emerging Asian artists show "side by side" with their peers from the west. "What I believe becomes apparent through doing this is that while there are strong links between what emerging artists in Asia and Europe are making, there are also significant local nuances," Ratnam says. "This might be to do with the mediums they are using but more often is to do with subject matter and the way in which they are using different media."
The world is showing interest, slowly but surely. Artist Liang Yuanwei says that early in her career her only connection to the global market was through Western scholars studying Chinese art. Nowadays, she is connected "through partnerships with galleries and participation in international art projects, and also thanks to art exhibitions which were supported by international collectors and international media".
Platon agrees with this new attention: "There is an increased interest in contemporary Chinese art that is being reflected in museum and gallery programmes and in art criticism. This new generation of artists are creating impressive works that reflect a globalising art world."
