Lacking a high-profile art scene like Beijing or Shanghai,
Shenzhen is not a city where one gets to see celebrated
artists everyday. Therefore, it was quite remarkable to see the
headliners of the Chinese contemporary art world – along with
a number of noted international curators – gather in the city
for the opening ceremony of the OCT Art & Design Gallery in
Nanshan District.
That "China's first design-themed gallery" opened in
Shenzhen reflected the city's leading position in the Chinese
design industry. Its establishment also completed the "art triangle"
of the OCT Group, the Shenzhen-based real estate
behemoth and enthusiastic art promoter. The triangle's other
two points are the He Xiangning Art Museum, which has
developed into a national-standard museum, and the OCT
Contemporary Art Terminal, which features cutting-edge modern
art.
The OCT Art & Design Gallery, focusing on avant garde
design ideas, is housed in a building adjacent to the
InterContinental Shenzhen Hotel that earlier used to be a
warehouse. The building is now a new cultural landmark unmistakable
for its huge honeycomb-like glass wall. Its opening
exhibition which will run until December, is not about design,
however, but about post-modernism, and titled "Hypallage
– The Post-Modern Mode of Chinese Contemporary Art."
Post-modernism has become a cultural fact in modern
China as market reforms are speeded up and an information
explosion occurs. New generation Chinese artists who grew
up in diverse cultural environments have been immersed in
a kind of post-modern discourse, which is frequently incorporated
in their artistic expressions.
This exhibition attempts to take the creations, including
paintings, photography, videos, sculptures and installations,
of some 54 top-notch and emerging Chinese artists as examples
to examine what connection they have with post-modern

ism,
how they embody the post-modern inclination, and how
the artists understand the value and significance in it.
As the title "Hypallage" indicates, the key feature of the
"post-modern mode of Chinese contemporary art" here mainly
refers to the rethinking, revision and even subversion of wide
classic concepts and images.
"The act of recreating classics has never stopped in either
the Eastern or Western history of art, and each recreation by
later artists can more or less enrich the meaning and aesthetic
value of the original works," says Chief Curator Feng Boyi.
"This exhibition not only shows the attitude toward classics in
the development of Chinese contemporary art, but also shows
the so-called classics are not set in stone."
As a result, the show features such thought-provoking exhibits
such as the well-known Discobolus statue in a Mao suit
or a modern factory girl inside a traditional Chinese painting.
Some artists choose to implant certain masterpieces or symbolic
elements into their own works. Others explore the conversation
between public images and classic paintings. When using
historical images, they do not dwell on existing judgment
of historic value, but visually transform history into photos,
files and documents. The third kind, and the most common, is
to substitute, parody and distort in the process of duplication
and appropriation. The "standards" set by the familiar works
become unreliable, and provide artists the pleasure of violating
taboo through disrespect, absurdity and humor.
"These are not simple copies, as each of these works conveys
a different message. By looking at them viewers will soon
realize what is before them are no longer traditional classics,
but 'new' visual images that have been imprinted with the artists'
personal marks," Feng concluded.

The "Hypallage – The Post-Modern Mode of Chinese Contemporary Art"
exhibition runs till September 1 at The OCT Art & Design Gallery (3399 3388) in
Shenzhen.