612 Chen Wei (1980) Breaking away from virtuoso documentary style of China's first generation of contemporary photographers, Chen's photographic/installation works focus the attention back to the medium, more in the tradition of western masters such as Cindy Sherman and Jeff Wall. With their lyrical cinematic settings, Chen's works can be likened to dreamscapes that capture fleeting moments in everyday life. Taxidermy, broken glass, melted wax and other found objects form the artist's stage set, creating fanciful scenes that are at once disconcerting and oddly mesmerising. Chen Yujun (1976) Chen graduated from China Academy of Art in 1999 and now works in Hangzhou where he also teaches in the Academy's department of experimental art. Chen and his brother/artist, Chen Yufan, come from a rich emigrational background with branches of their family spanning across Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. As a result, the issue of displacement and the search for self-definition in a foreign culture form an integral part of Chen's oeuvre. As young critic Lu Mingjun described, Chen's search for self-identity creates in his artistic practice a distinct anthropological aesthetic: for the artist, the foreign lands of Southeast Asia represent a space of possibility or experience of the unknown, and it is the communication of this experience that becomes the original intention of his work. Chen Zhou (1987) Born in Zhejiang, China in 1987, Chen decided not to study at the Hangzhou Academy and instead graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing with a degree in Media Art in 2009. Chen’s experimental practice alternates between fluid roles of artist and filmmaker. Tapping into the aesthetics of cinema history and popular culture, Chen explores the pliability of language and the incongruous new system of aethetics unfolding in contemporary China. Chen’s latest exhibition was “I am Not Not Not Chen Zhou” at Magician Space in Beijing. He was also part of “ON|OFF” at UCCA, and appeared in the group shows “Jungle” (Platform China) and “Get It Louder” in Beijing in 2010. Cheng Ran (1981) Since graduating from China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Cheng has become one of the leading video artists in China. Cheng's videos delve into the inner psyche of China's younger generation, capturing their living experiences against the backdrop of globalisation. Drawing inspiration from European art house cinema, rock music and youth culture, Cheng creates cinematic works that are at once poetic, mysterious and relevant. Chow Chun Fei (1980) Born and bred in Hong Kong, Chow graduated with his BA and MFA degrees from the Department of Fine Arts at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2003. In 2004, he was a visiting lecturer in the School of Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. An active member of Fotanian Art Village, Chow continues his teaching career at the Hong Kong Art School and the Lee Sha Kee School of Creativity on a parttime basis. He currently works in Beijing and Hong Kong. Chow was the finalist in the Sovereign Art Prize in 2004 and 2005. In 2008, he was awarded the Hong Kong Arts Centre 30th Anniversary Award Grand Prize. Chun Ouyang (1974) A graduate from the Department of Art Education at the Fine Art Academy in Xi'an, Chun now lives and works in Beijing. Despite the innocent, almost child-like, façade of his paintings, Chun's early years were far from idyllic. Having abandoned middle school and run away from home, Chun is well educated in the harsh realities of the world. Many of the seedy underworld types that he met during these early years would appear in his paintings as "evil" characters. Self expression remains the key feature of Chun's oeuvre. Cui Jie (1983) One of the few female rising stars from China's Post-80s generation, Cui's artworks have been exhibited worldwide, including the 4th Prague Biennale and the Tomas Y Valiente Art Center in Madrid. Cui's early works are characterised by the juxtaposition of conflicting images on canvas as she questioned the truth in reality. Like many of her peers who draw their inspiration from Western movies, Cui's paintings show the influence of Orson Welles; her canvases are typically composed of fragmented landscapes, arranged in grids and graphic patterns. Cui Xiuwen (1970) Graduating from the Central Academy in 1996, Cui's known for her bold, often controversial paintings, including “Intersection Series” (1998), featuring a full frontal view of a naked man. 1998 marked a turning point in the artist's career when she discovered the limitless possibilities of video as a medium. Her first video installation, "Lady's Room" (2000) made a lasting impression on the Chinese contemporary art scene when it led to the first lawsuit in the history of Chinese contemporary Cui's honest and confrontational videos and photographs explore the taboo subjects of sexuality, feminism, and gender roles in China. D Dong Dawei After completing his BA at LuXun Academy of Fine Arts in 2004, Dong went on to graduate from ENSA-Bourges, France, with a DNAP (2009) and DNSEP (2011). Currently living and working in Beijing, Dong represents China's young generation of abstract artists. Since 2008, Dong has illustrated an elaborate, composed and poetic world of abstraction simply using a marker pen. His unique technique was actually borne out of an accident - a stack of paper soaked through by a marker pen left uncapped. While this technique of "diffusion" is relatively unknown in Western painting, it is quite common as an assisting technique in Chinese painting, typically to highlight expressions. Dong's paintings start from a single point with each grid constructed through perfectly timed diffusion of the ink; this precision demands a mastery of in-themoment discretion and affinity from the artist. Ding Yi (1962) As one of the leading Chinese abstract artists today, Ding has been widely exhibited, with works at the Venice Biennale (1993), Yokohama Triennial (2001) and Guangzhou Biennale (2002). His signature is represented by a cross that is carefully and subtly repeated across the canvas. Rather than being concerned about illusion or representation of objects, Ding's works explore the abstract aesthetic using layered intersections of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines across surfaces to challenge the viewer's visual perception. The formal method of abstraction and the variations within the repetitive patterns makes his work an intriguing case for the relevance of abstract painting in contemporary art. Like Chinese calligraphy, Ding’s crosses constitute a certain correlation between the order of the universe and that of the human. Du Zhenjun (1961) Du can be considered one of the earliest contemporary Chinese multimedia artists and his interactive video installation works are recognised internationally. With a focus on the state of "Modern Man", Du's visually stimulating images and engaging computer technology betray a deep-seated sense of cruelty and violence. His works represent a critique of human nature and the relationship with modern civilisation. Duan Jianyu (1977) “Life is a heap of mixed material of unclear quality.” Purposely avoiding the painterly sublime, Duan strives for the most generic subject matter, delving into the most banal. Chickens, which appear in many of her works, are a metaphor for this interest in the ordinary. Yet hers is not a naive or even narrative description of everyday life. Instead, she uses a highly refined method of displacement that propels the work into a realm where art acts as a language and painting as a medium. Duan's sincerity about the fundamental role of art in life is matched by her ambitious scope: to use art as a medium to tell basic truths about conditions of contemporaneity.
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