The eleventh Paratissima Italian Art fair, will launch between the 4th and 8th of November in Turin, during which the Chinese pavilion whose theme is ‘Utopia and beyond’ will also unveil. The pavilion, remarked by its ‘abundant diversity’, has invited nine Chinese contemporary artists, including Cheng Ran, Ding Shiwei，He Xun，Liang Manyong，Meng Yangyang，Shi Yiran，Yang Kai，Yang Yang，Zheng Wenxin, to exhibit over 40 pieces of work that include oil painting, ink, mixed media and film installation.
This exhibition presents the artists’ latest creative experimentation, with highlights being Yang Kai’s conventional ink drawings and Ding Shi Wei, Cheng Ran and Yang Yang’s different approaches to photography. The style of the work also varies significantly with examples being the works of female artists Zheng Wenxin and Shi Yiran: comparable yet distinctive in their display of refined emotions – the former warm and the latter lonely.
Another trait that characterizes the artists we have selected is ‘youthfulness’. Age-wise, all exhibiting artists whose artistic pursuit and preferences will soon influence the growth of Chinese contemporary art were born after 1980. Though most essentially, their artwork all embodies a flamboyant liveliness. Besides, we want to show the development of the philosophy within Chinese contemporary art to a global audience, as seen for instance in Ding Shiwei’s exploration of politics, Cheng Ran’s study of the regrets in life and Meng Yangyang’s investigation of interpersonal relationships.
These Chinese contemporary young artists, seemingly poles apart, all originate from the same Chinese circumstances and realities that have brought them together.
Here lays perhaps, the enigmatic magnetism that draws Chinese contemporary art towards ‘Utopia and beyond’.
