| It was not until the 1990s that the world started noticing Chinese contemporary art. Within less than two decades, works from the ‘85 New Wave, Political Pop Art, and Cynical Realism periods drew attention across the globe and broke auction house records. Unlike the previous generation of artists whose market-friendly formula involves manipulating political symbols and Cultural Revolution imagery, a more diverse generation of Chinese artists have emerged, and along came a post-political movement. These artists address urbanization, globalization, and privacy issues in their works. Today a significant number of Chinese-born artists live and work abroad. The phenomenon raises a question: what is the collective identity of Chinese art when it is stripped off Chinese political ideologies and ethnic/geographic boundaries? | 
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Zhang Xiao-Min is the curator of the panel discussion Up & Coming: New Development of Contemporary Photography, which took place at Chinese-American Arts Council in New York City on June 21.
Zheng Yao-Hua, Untitled, 2008. Courtesy of Chinese-American Arts Council.
It was not until the 1990s that the world started noticing Chinese contemporary art. Within less than two decades, works from the ‘85 New Wave, Political Pop Art, and Cynical Realism periods drew attention across the globe and broke auction house records. Unlike the previous generation of artists whose market-friendly formula involves manipulating political symbols and Cultural Revolution imagery, a more diverse generation of Chinese artists have emerged, and along came a post-political movement. These artists address urbanization, globalization, and privacy issues in their works. Today a significant number of Chinese-born artists live and work abroad. The phenomenon raises a question: what is the collective identity of Chinese art when it is stripped off Chinese political ideologies and ethnic/geographic boundaries?
The four artists from the photography exhibition 4 at the Chinese-American Arts Council (CAAC) give us a perfect chance to explore this issue. Zhang Wu, Miao Jia-Xin, Zheng Yao-Hua, and Wang Yi-Qun are all Chinese-born, New York-based artists. Born in Shanghai in the 1960s, Wang Yi-Qun and Zheng Yao-Hua were among the first avant-garde photographers and video artists after China opened up. After immigrating to the U.S., both became independent artists. Miao Jia-Xin and Zhang Wu were born in the late 1970s. They belong to the new generation of Chinese photographers. Zhang carried on the tradition of street photography. Miao garnered fame for his radical conceptual photography. At first glance, their works lack conspicuous political messages or Chinese symbols. In fact, one may not associate their photos with China at all if they don’t know the artists’ names. In this case, can we still label them as Chinese photographers? Or should our perception of Chinese art be expanded? Do their global concerns and experiences appeal to a greater audience or limit their market in reality?
The three distinguished panelists and a special guest at this panel discussion shared with us their observations and insights. Among them, Shi Han-Tao is an independent curator and writer. He was awarded as curator of the year in the 2005 Lianzhou International Photo Festival. Jon Feinstein is the curatorial director of the Brooklyn-based Humble Arts Foundation. Patrick Regan is the assistant director of the Ethan Cohen Fine Arts gallery, which specializes in Chinese contemporary art. Special guest Shen Wei is the art director of CAAC, as well as a successful photographer himself. He was nominated as one of the 2008 PDN 30 emerging photographers. They not only introduced the latest development of photography in the U.S. and China, but also discussed the questions mentioned above. Up & Coming does not aim at producing conclusive answers. We hope to bring about intriguing questions and thoughts that help us understand the development and transition Chinese contemporary art is undergoing.
