Yang Xiaoyan: Vice Dean of the School of Communication and Design in Sun Yat-sen University, Professor, PhD Supervisor, Visiting Professor of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Master’s Supervisor, Academic Director of 21 Space Art Museum

Introduction to Figurative China

The Exhibition held by 21 Space Art Museum will center upon the overall concept of Figurative China and continuously present the real situation of contemporary Chinese art, especially contemporary oil painting.

Under the guidance of this concept, the project series exhibitions attempt to achieve the following goals: First of all, to present an overview of Chinese art history in the 20th century, focusing on figurative expression as a direct result of the interactive mirror image and cross-reference between Chinese traditional art and Western art since the latter has been brought into China over hundreds of years; Secondly, the connotation of “figurativeness” implies that the essential element of art is “texture”, and outline the modernized progression of Chinese contemporary art comprehensively through multidimensional exploration into “texture” and objects; Finally, this illustrates that the progression of contemporary Chinese art undoubtedly ties to the visual element of “texture”, which is not only because of its distinctive feature in Chinese contemporary art differing from tradition, but to witness the social changes as a piece of evidence through an expression of advanced notion in order to show the emotions in current society.

According to above explanation, Figurative China is an overall concept that covers the changes of Chinese contemporary art. Centering upon it, these project series exhibitions will attempt to present the unique texture of Chinese contemporary art, which is appreciable, tangible and visible, and to highlight its Chinese properties.

The first project series exhibition Visual Mix exhibits some of the works from young artists in Guangdong with a wide variety of forms, but with one thing in common: their concern in today’s society. These artists attempt to reconstruct the relationship between art and society by their unique styles. It fully illustrates that working towards a target is an interpretation of figurativeness, which enables ones to directly perceive the appreciable and tangible texture of reality. In my opinion, there is nothing more touching than such a multidimensional figurative art. Frankly, I think this is the value of a curator, which is best exemplified by this exhibition.