Club Talk: China’s New Generation of Millennial Artists

Globalization has had an acute impact on the new generation of Chinese artists emerging after the year 2000. Whereas older generations of Chinese artists were deeply concerned with Chinese identity, this new generation of artists eschew Chinese characteristics in their work and are most concerned about engaging in a global dialogue. What are the implications of this for the future of Chinese contemporary art? What does this tell us about China’s millennials? Will Xi Jinping’s new nationalist policies and attitudes towards culture stop this trend from fully developing?

An award winning journalist, critic and independent curator, Barbara Pollack is the author of the new book, Brand New Art from China: A Generation on the Rise. Pollack has covered the Chinese art scene since the late 1990s, for the New York Times, Vanity Fair, the Village Voice, Artnews Magazine and numerous other publications. She also curated the groundbreaking show, My Generation: Young Chinese Artists, which traveled to U.S. museums in 2014-15. Based on her research, she has been an invited speaker at the World Economic Forum’s Summer Davos in China and has received awards from the Asian Cultural Council and the Andy Warhol/Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant.