At 2:00 pm on April 4, 2015, the press conference of the large scale group exhibition of painting entitled “The Boundaries of Order”, curated by Xia Jifeng was held at Hive Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, Xia Jifeng, Director of the Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Tong Juanjuan, Executive Director of the Hive Center for Contemporary Art as well the media from Beijing attended the conference.

At the beginning of the conference, Xia Jifeng directly introduced The Boundaries of Order, the inaugural exhibition of 2015 to the media. The exhibition features 32 Chinese artists from around the world and focuses on their non-figurative and anti-realist art style, as well as their common and inherent Oriental art aesthetic tradition which properly expresses contemporary and prospective art during daily creativity, rather than observing the abstraction of painting. The show presents over 100 oeuvres by artists from different generations, covering the 5 exhibition halls of the gallery.

Since the early twentieth century, the aesthetic leanings and formal techniques of Chinese art have grown with the shifting times and social reality, with a never-ending surge of schools and ideas, but throughout this time, realism has always dominated the mainstream. Xia Jifeng said that it was no longer satisfied with realism in contemporary art for realism had dominated for too long, it was badly in need of another kind of thought and form instead of realism. He reiterated that the exhibition avoided returning to the discussion from the perspective of abstraction, although he had not found a suitable word to summarize it yet, it was certainly a long process.

Then, Xia Jifeng introduced 11 exhibitions and 4 special programs that are going to be held at the Hive Center for Contemporary Art in 2015 one by one, and emphasized the “Liang Quan 30 Years Retrospective” (June and July), “Group Exhibition of the Post-80’s Artists” which is curated by Zhu Zhu (November and December), it is an exhibition on the field study for the young artists once again, following the Group Exhibition of the Post-70’s Artists that was jointly curated by Xia Jifeng and Zhu Zhu in 2009, Xia Jifeng said that the artists that had participated in the 2009 show had become the present representatives so he had the same expectation for the “Group Exhibition of the Post-80’s Artists”; in addition, Hive Center for Contemporary Art will hold the solo exhibitions for the artists of “’85 New Wave”, including Song Ling, Wei Dong, Li Jin, Xu Lei, in cooperation with several art museums in China. Xia Jifeng said at the press conference that, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of “’85 New Wave”, it returned to combing through “’85 New Wave”, in order to indicate the direction for the development of contemporary art.

The exhibition’s selection of artists begins with Chu Teh-chun and Zao Wou-ki from the mid-twentieth century, and shifts through the artists that follow on a temporal, latitudinal trajectory based on age. Geographically speaking, the exhibition includes several oversea Chinese artists, such as Chu Teh-chun and Zao Wou-ki in France, Richard Lin in Taiwan, David Diao in America, Su Xiaobai in Germany and Lui Chun Kwong in Hong Kong. Of course, artists who grew up locally in China make up the majority in this exhibition.

After the press conference, Xia Jifeng guided the media to visit the exhibition. The 5 exhibition halls are divided into sections, on entering the gallery the audience will see the work by David Diao, who is considered as a very important abstract artist by Xia Jifeng, followed by the works of Zhou Li, Chu Teh-Chun, Zao Wu-ki, Richard Lin, Liang Quan, Liu Ye, Wang Huaiqing, Shang Yang, Yu Youhan, Su Xiaobai, Lui Chun Kwong, Ma Shuqing, Chen Qiang, Ding Yi, Li Lei, Yan Lei, and then a section of post-70s artists including Chen Ruo Bing, Zhou Yangming, Chen Yufan, Wang Guangle, Liu Ke, Liang Yuanwei, Chen Lizhu, the section of post-80s artists including Chi Qun, Ju Ting, Tang Mingwei, Leng Guangmin, Qian Jiahua, Li Ping, finally it is the section of post-90s artists including Wang Yi, Wang Zhiyi. The exhibition was officially open at 4:00 pm on April 4, going through to May 4.

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO, courtesy of the artists and Hive Center for Contemporary Art, for further information please visit www.hiveart.cn.