After signing a three-year agreement with the K11 Art Foundation (KAF) on Jan. 13, Tuesday, Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum (CAFAM) opened its sophomore CAFAM Future Exhibition two days later.
The full title of the six-week exhibition reads: "The 2nd CAFAM Future Exhibition: Observer-Creator/The Reality Representation of Chinese Young Art."
The exhibition's main objective is to present young art and culture from the past two years, since the first exhibition was staged, as well as the new perspectives of the art museum.
According to professor Xu Bing, a Chinese artist who has co-curated the exhibition, the "Future" artists "represent the future," while their works "examine young artistic creation and analyze and present the objective facts of this ecology."
Xu was one of six panel members at the official press conference that announced the exhibition, which was held in the Chinese capital on the day after Christmas last year. A large number of reporters were told that the second Future event is a further development of "Sub-Phenomena: The First CAFAM Future Exhibition," which gained a lot of attention in mid-2012.
The art museum continually observed the progress of the "Sub-Phenomena" artists, who had received critical acclaim for their 2012 efforts, over the two-year period following the first exhibition. The young group of creatives eventually completed over 100 pieces, which could be seen on display on Jan. 22, Thursday.
Xu further explained the youth dynamic that CAFAM has embraced since 2012:
"We have always believed that supporting young artists is a worthwhile endeavor, because young artists are at the most sensitive stage in their development and are able to reflect the most uncertain and vital things about our time."
According to the Global Times, the exhibition also prioritizes "non-art" experiences in a meditation upon the "systematic and modular nature of contemporary art."