China’s Next Generation of Artists, Five to Watch

Before introducing her list of five Chinese Contemporary artists worth watching—Ciu Jie, Cao Fei, Xu Qu, Xu Zhen & Zhao Zhao—Abby Schultz makes this point about the changing generations in among China’s artists:

Alexandre Errera, founder of artshare.com, an online marketplace for Chinese contemporary art, views these largely post-cultural revolution artists as being a generation distinct from Zheng and his contemporaries, including Yue Minjun and Zang Xiaogang. “They were very much about cynical realism, and they were very ‘Chinese’ works,” Errera says.

The art being done by a newer generation of Chinese artists, born in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, is more conceptual and global in its subject matter, Errera says, adding, “They are artists who can be from anywhere.”

David Chau, an art promoter and collector active in Shanghai’s art scene, agrees. “With the Internet and with China being the way it is for the last ten years, it’s opened up a lot so people my age (he’s 30) they look at art not as propaganda or political, art is just art to them. It’s a good medium to say what you want to say.”

Chinese Contemporary Artists Worth Watching  (Barron’s)