Exhibition Name: On the Road · 2014: Nomination Exhibition for Chinese Young Artists and Youth Critics Forum

Exhibition period: December 27, 2014- January 20, 2015

Opening time: December 27, 2014 at 4:00 pm

Forum time: December 28, 2014 (all day)

Exhibition location: The entire first and third floors of Shenzhen Guanshan Moon Art Museum

Organizer: Shenzhen Guanshan Yue Art Museum

Supporting unit: Shenzhen Special Fund for the Development of Propaganda and Culture

Official website link:

http://onroad.gsyart.com/

 The key contemporary art academic activity of the Guan Shan Yue Art Museum this year, "On the Road · 2014: China Youth Artist Works Nomination Exhibition and Youth Critics Forum," will first open on December 27, 2014 at the Guan Shan Yue Art Museum, and will be exhibited in cities such as Chongqing, Wuhan, Beijing, and Shanghai in 2015.

1、 "On the Road: Nomination Exhibition for Chinese Young Artists' Works and Youth Critics Forum"

"On the Road" is a sustained contemporary art project of the Guan Shan Yue Art Museum, aimed at continuously organizing and accumulating contemporary art literature mainly composed of young artists born in the 1970s and 1980s, and discovering and discussing contemporary art issues that have emerged here. The initial planning for "On the Road" was based on media as a sub item, starting from oil painting in 2013, focusing on new ink painting in 2014, and perhaps focusing on new media in 2015. "On the Road" is a youth career, and in addition to targeting young artists and artistic phenomena, the main participants in forums and event planning are also young critics. Under the leadership of Chen Xiangbo, the producer of the series of events and the director of the Guan Shan Yue Art Museum, Yan Weixin, the deputy director of the Guan Shan Yue Art Museum, Sheng Wei, the deputy editor in chief of "Fine Arts", and Zhang Xinying, the director of the academic department of the Guan Shan Yue Art Museum, as conveners in 2013, with the support of senior critics such as Yin Shuangxi, Yu Ke, Yang Xiaoyan, Li Yi, Shang Hui, Lu Hong, Sun Zhenhua, and young critics such as Wu Hongliang, Zhu Xiaojun, Liu Libin, Lu Mingjun, and Chen Xiangbing, the "On the Road. 2013" series of academic activities was planned. In 2014, at the invitation of Yan Weixin, Wu Hongliang, the director of the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Zhu Xiaojun, the editor in chief of "Art and Wealth", and Sheng Wei and Zhang Xinying joined the curation team, showcasing senior ink artists such as Wang Tiande, Liu Qinghe, Xu Lei, and Zhang Yu; With the joint support of more than 30 critics, including Zhang Zikang, Lu Rongzhi, Gao Ling, He Guiyan, Fu Xiaodong, and Wang Dongdong, 40 young artists were selected for a sampling exhibition based on visits, observations, research sorting, and literature editing and publishing of more than 160 nominated artists. An academic forum with the theme of "History, Scene, and Writing of Contemporary Ink Painting" was held in conjunction with the exhibition. For each subsequent event, with the main structure unchanged, the curation team will make corresponding adjustments based on the scope and theme of the event. "On the Road" is a funding project of the Shenzhen Special Fund for the Development of Propaganda and Culture. Starting from Shenzhen in 2013, it received assistance and support from institutions such as the Dadao Art Fund and China Mobile Shenzhen Branch in 2014. The Guan Shan Yue Art Museum also collaborated with Chongqing Art Museum, Beijing Intermediate Art Museum, and other institutions to jointly exhibit in Chongqing, Wuhan, Beijing, Shanghai, and other places.

2、 Paying Attention to Youth and Organizing History: The Cultural Responsibility of Art Museums

As an open public welfare cultural institution, art museums are playing an increasingly important role in the construction of national and civic culture. Paying attention to and cultivating a healthy contemporary art ecosystem, promoting the steady development of contemporary art, is the cultural responsibility entrusted to art museums by history and the times. For more than 30 years, avant-garde art's nature of advocating freedom and challenging existing order has maintained a subtle relationship between contemporary art and institutions. The art museum has always been thinking about how to effectively intervene in the development process of contemporary art and play its due role in this process. The Guan Shanyue Art Museum adheres to Mr. Guan Shanyue's philosophy of "keeping up with the times with his brushstrokes", with "20th century Chinese art research" and "contemporary design art research" as its main academic positioning, and has a wide influence throughout the country. "On the Road: Nomination Exhibition for Chinese Young Artists' Works and Youth Critics Forum" is a sustained contemporary art project established by Guan Shanyue Art Museum in 2013, based on its existing academic research foundation. Starting from the perspective of historical review, this study aims to explore the ecological observation, research, display, and literature retention of representative artists and their works through methods such as critic nominations, questionnaire surveys, studio visits, exhibitions and literature editing and publishing, thematic websites, WeChat, Weibo, etc., starting from the fields where the post-70s and post-80s generations are the main creative forces, and to study and explore the academic issues reflected in them. The activities include early nomination of critics and editing and publishing of literature collections, a one month sampling nomination exhibition, and a one day youth critic forum.

2、 From a Historical Perspective: Starting from Media to Organize Literature in the Era of Single Media Creation

The initial activity plan for "On the Road" was based on media as the main sub item, with oil painting, ink painting, printmaking, and new media organized annually. In the fifth year, a comprehensive literature exhibition was held to present and discuss the academic issues reflected in these four years of activities. Starting from the perspective of media is not about emphasizing the media itself, but rather considering that a large proportion of art creation in China still relies on a single medium as a means of expression, and there is also a certain time difference in the pace of contemporary development in various media fields, resulting in different problems presented, such as the contemporary demands of printmaking represented by cross-border, the cultural symbolism of ink and wash surpassing media and language, the virtual and interactive characteristics of the digital era of new media, and so on. Therefore, the activity starts with the creation of language elements based on media, or the creative groups and phenomena related to them in terms of materials and concepts. It emphasizes the aesthetic personality of the artistic means used by artists as aesthetic elements, as well as the degree of mastery and application of the artistic means used and the cultural significance behind them in theory, whether their media methods have driving significance for their ontology, and there are no further limitations on the presentation methods.

With the continuous emergence of new media methods, contemporary art creation is becoming more and more comprehensive. In theory, the exploration of a single media will gradually lose its significance. On the contrary, it is timely to sort out the phenomenon of single media creation in history. Therefore, throughout the entire activity, we attach more importance to the collection and organization of literature. In terms of operation, we adopt a combination of nomination literature publication+selection sampling exhibition. In addition to selecting a certain number of artists to participate in nomination exhibitions, more importantly, we will also edit and publish a literature collection including all nominated artist literature, in order to provide more emotional literature and topics for historical research at this stage. Through corresponding collection work, we also reserve a reproducible and continuous basis for the study of contemporary art history. The text. In 2013, we held the first exhibition focused on youth oil painting. In 2014, we will focus on the field of "contemporary ink painting", hoping to observe the ecology of youth ink painting art and theoretically clean up the academic issues that have emerged in the recent ink painting craze.

3、 Along the Way: The Common Cause of Art Museums, Young Artists, and Young Critics

"On the Road" positions the target artist group as the post-70s and post-80s, two art creation groups that have reached their peak but have not yet been thoroughly sorted out in history. The historical significance of the post-70s and post-80s generation is not only that they differ from the post-50s and post-60s generation in terms of linear historical development, but also that their overall ecology has formed another important turning point in the development of contemporary Chinese art. If the post-50s and post-60s, as experienced individuals, have not yet fully achieved artistic autonomy under the constraints of the overall social transformation environment, then the post-70s and post-80s, as a generation of artists who have grown up in a market economy environment, have significantly weakened institutional constraints and greatly strengthened artistic autonomy. If senior artists have completed the historical mission of liberating their minds and revitalizing culture, and solved the problem of what Western contemporary art is, then young artists face the problem of how to establish the subjectivity of contemporary art and what Chinese contemporary art is in the history of art. In this situation, it is particularly important to pay dynamic attention to the ecology of the youth art community.

 The academic appeal of "on the road" is based on the purpose of dynamic observation and literature review of "what is happening". At the same time, in order to maintain an objective and comprehensive examination of such a dynamic and complex object, we value more the power of young critics and promote exhibition planning through academic research and artistic criticism. Contemporary art criticism is undoubtedly an important component of deepening creation and exhibitions. Young critics not only participate in the nomination of young artists and forum discussions, but also participate in the organization and planning of the entire exhibition activity. Therefore, the series of activities will undoubtedly be the manifestation of the wisdom of young artists and critics born in the 1970s and 1980s, and can objectively convey the voice of this group's thoughts. At the same time, through everyone's joint efforts, the entire event will truly play a role in recording and creating history in the development of contemporary Chinese art.

4、 "On the Road"=Ecological Observation+Academic Discussion

The China Youth Critics Forum is an important component of the entire event, and through a series of forums, we will conduct in-depth discussions on the youth art ecology and the academic issues it reflects. The concepts of "post-70s" and "post-80s" first appeared in the poetry industry and have since sparked widespread debate throughout the literary world. They have given extensive attention to the pioneering role of the "post-70s" and "post-80s" writing groups and their fleeting cultural motivations, as well as how "intergenerational logic" emerged and dissipated. Although there was no similar phenomenon of the "post-70s" and "post-80s" groups in the art industry during the same period, the transitional differences between the "post-70s" and "post-80s" creative groups and their predecessors in terms of survival status, knowledge structure, academic background, and creative status are self-evident. A new art ecology that reflects their attitude towards life, aesthetic concepts, and academic direction has quietly formed. Of course, the novelty of the new art ecosystem cannot be denied for its continuation and continuation of tradition, especially the academic context and rules formed since 1985. So, what kind of concept and form does the new art ecosystem present? Where is the new manifestation of new art? What is the turning point of its significance in the development of contemporary art? This is the topic that we intend to focus on and discuss in our series of academic activities. In 2013, we divided the discussion into four sections: holistic discourse, subgroup analysis, sub phenomenon analysis, and theoretical and case studies, focusing on the origin, scene, and prospect of new art. In 2014, where did the new ink painting seek novelty? What is its value core and bottom line? What are the new expressions of new ink painting? The theoretical construction and historical writing of the new ink painting will become the focus of our discussion.

5、 In the era of new media, activities themselves also reflect the characteristics of the digital era

In terms of the concept of curation and exhibition operation, this event has highlighted the characteristics of digital operation and designed a dedicated dynamic webpage（http://onroad.gsyart.com）Nominations and evaluations are all completed through the internet. In addition, QR codes, APP digital exhibition halls, WeChat, Weibo, etc. will all serve as important extensions of the main event, further expanding the audience of the entire event, so that more viewers can understand all the content of the event in a more convenient way.