In order to discover and recommend young artists, Right View Art Museum launched the first “Elite Young Artists Program 2016”, based on the “New Academy Art Plan 2015”. On November 30, 2017, the “Elite Young Artists Program 2018” started and the press conference for solicitation was held at the Right View Art Museum. Wei Xiangqi, a PhD in Fine Arts, again serves as the curator.

At the press conference, Sun Zhizhong, Director of the Right View Art Museum, and the project manager Kan Linlin reviewed & summarized the previous two “Elite Young Artists Program”, and introduced the upcoming “Elite Young Artists Program 2018” and the future development of the program.

“Elite Young Artists Program” does not clearly set a curatorial theme, but the intuitive expression and self-awareness is imperative for the artists participating in the exhibition, who have a clear sense of problems with the creative concept of contemporary art. Wei Xiangqi believed that although many young artists were exploring new ideas and thinking in contemporary art creation, it was more important that there is a connection to the truth between creation and the self, namely the creation was based on the profound cognition of the self rather than simply creating a concept, having missed the self-existence. Therefore, “Elite Young Artists Program 2018” requires a focus on “consciousness” in language and awareness, searching for the emotion & warmth of humanity in the dual dimensions of art history and sociology.

In 2016, the first “Elite Young Artists Program” selected 171 works by 51 artists, based on the theme of “Painting” and “Expressionism”, “Iconicity” and Ideology”, to hold an exhibition at the Beijing Right View Art Museum and Tiandayunhua Art Museum, Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum in March and June; In 2017, the second “Elite Young Artists Program” considered “Subjective Transformation of Visual & Ideological Experience”, “Reconstruction of Historical and Intellectual Experience”, “Variations of Sensibility, Context and Space” as three sub-topics, to explore the “consciousness of the creative art concept of the young artists”, and 184 pieces by 49 artists were selected and on show at Beijing Right View Art Museum and Tiandayunhua Art Museum from March to May. In 2018, the program will select about 80 works of 30-40 artists from the submissions and recommendations which will eventually be on display at the Right View Art Museum.

Since 2010, many young artist programs including “New Star Art Festival”, “Art Nova 100” and “CAFAM Future”, seize the opportunity in the market recovery following the economic crisis, appeared in China. Seen from the start-up, “Elite Young Artists Program” had a late start. However, there was academic thinking at the beginning, namely starting from an independent perspective to organize the well-known curators, critics, artists and art organizations in the industry to research the artistic appearance formed after the “’85 New Wave”. “Elite Young Artists Program 2016” and “Elite Young Artists Program 2017” invited a total of 17 well-known curators and critics including Cai Feng, Cai Meng, Chen Xiangbo, Hang Chunxiao, He Guiyan, Hu Bin, Liu Libin, Shang Hui, Sheng Wei, Sun Feng, Jie Fu, Wang Chunchen, Wu Hongliang, Wu Jing, Xu Ran, and Zhu Xiaojun as the academic advisors, and “Elite Young Artists Program 2018” will invite 6 curators including Cao Feiyue, Di Xiaowei, Kang Xueru, Wang Pengjie, Yang Jian and Yu Ying, who are engaged in the young artist programs, as academic guests. In addition, it focuses more on the curators’ own academic judgment, and is more inclined to easel painting in the solicitation, with a focus on the combination of painting and ideological concepts, examining the artists’ historical awareness during creation.

Wei Xiangqi also introduced that it was about to organize the outstanding works by the artists participating in the previous shows and planning an academic exhibition following “Elite Young Artists Program 2018”, in order to research the creative status of young artists.

Text by Yang Zhonghui, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Photo by the organizer

“Elite Young Artists Program 2018” will solicit artists and their works in China through the Zaiart APP. In early February, 2018, the organizer will bring all the submitted and recommended artists’ information together, which would be reviewed by the jury composed of producers, curators, academic advisors and invited guests, to determine the finalists. The exhibition is expected to be held at the Right View Art Museum from March 17 to April 29, 2018.