At 4:00 pm on June 20, 2014, “The Rush – Exhibition for Young Artists from CAFA” was unveiled at Times Art Museum. The exhibition was planned by Jia Yunbo, Pan Yuehan, and participating artists include Bigan Hangni, Du Linyan, Jiang Shanshan, Li Lisha, Lin Jingyun, Lin Xi, Liu Yuan, Ouyang Yiqian, Pan Yuehan, Pang Xiaochen, Wang Mengshi, Xu Weiqi, and Yuan Xiaoxuan. The exhibition curators are graduates of the School of Humanities, CAFA, and participating artists are graduates of the Department of Chinese Painting, CAFA.

The whole exhibition is divided into three parts, aimed at revealing the young artists, who have just left the campus, who are still in the creative and life state of “hastily meetings and partings”. “Meetings and partings” is the clue of the exhibition, connecting the thinking of the present state through the works in three parts, connected “Floating Life of Meetings and Partings”, “Gaze and Memory” and “Parting in Mountains and Meeting in Metropolis”.

Section one of the exhibition is entitled “Floating Life”, to demonstrate the personal emotion in a contemporary context. This part of the work uses a variety of approaches such as integration, splicing and metaphor, to express the artists’ reflection on modern life and their feelings. Ouyang Yiqian’s creation “Floating Life One Day” was inspired by YouTube in which people around the world respectively shot and edited a film in one day, revealing the artist’s personal emotion in a complex world. Du Linyan’s “Electro-Monster” uses the form of metaphor to show that science and technology are intangibly bound together and oppress the human in this time of information overload. Lin Jingyun’s “Dreams Again” through the collage of fragments creates an unique narrative effect, the school-day memories were processed to be fragments with the use of real scenes which were mutually crisscrossed, to arouse people’s collective school-days memories. Section two is “Man?Faze?Memory”, in which works present the personal memory of the young artists, or the thinking of time and memory. Pang Xiaochen’s “Look Mutually” drew a group of children looking at the viewers through the window. Pan Yuehan’s “Name der Rose” depicts the young appearance of her mother. Lin Xi’s “Fair Southern Shore, with Scenes I Adore” depicts the childhood memory of the artist’s hometown. Liu Yuan’s “Golden Times”by painting the eastern gate of CAFA expresses the nostalgia of school days in the academy. Section three is “Metropolis and Mountains” to explore the experience of contemporary life, choice of two different life states of landscape and city. Yuan Xiaoxuan, “Metropolis” showcases the unique taste of Sanlitun’s consumption culture. Xu Weiqi’s “Beijing Subway Line 10” combines seal cutting and the image of the Beijing subway. Li Lisha’s work reproduces the classical tradition of Dunhuang’s mural paintings, Bigan Hangni’s “Road to Canaan” borrows the story from the Bible when Israel searched for the holy land, to express the journey of her heart in the creation.

Most of the participated young artists are from the School of Chinese Painting, CAFA, but they don’t fully follow the form of Chinese painting. The young artists also try to explore the new form, material, and technology. Curator Jia Yunbo said that, “new ink painting” was hot in the present Chinese painting market, but for young artists who just stepped onto the road of artistic creation, they should have their own voice, rather than blindly chasing, so the exhibition didn’t highlight the concept of ink, but focused on the showing of young artists’ multiple attempts in form, material and technique.

The exhibition will continue to June 24.

Text and photo by Zhang Wenzhi/CAFA ART INFO

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO