Brand New Art from China: A Generation on the Rise

UCLA Confucious Institute hosts a talk and Q&A with Barbara Pollack, award-winning journalist and art critic.

Reception with light refreshments to follow. Attendees are invited to bring their own copies of Brand New Art from China: A Generation on the Rise for Barbara Pollack to sign.

A visionary generation of young Chinese artists are coming to prominence in the art world – just as China cements its place as the second largest art market on the planet. Building on the new frontiers opened up by the Chinese artists of the late 1980s and 1990s, artists such as Ai Wei Wei who came to the West and became household names, this new generation are provocative, exciting and bold. But what does it mean to be a Chinese artist today? And how can we better understand their work?

Here, renowned critic Barbara Pollack tells the story of how these Chinese millennials, fast becoming global art superstars, negotiate their cultural heritage, and what this means for China’s impact on the future of global culture. Many young Chinese artists have declared they are “not Chinese, but global” – Pollack investigates just what that means for China, the art market, and the world.

About Barbara Pollack

Barbara Pollack is an award-winning journalist, art critic, and curator who is one of the world’s leading authorities on contemporary Chinese art. Pollack’s writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Village Voice, Departures, Artnews, Art and Auction and Art in America, among many others. She has also written several ground-breaking monographs on young Chinese artists, including the first published artist profile of Ai Weiwei for Artnews in 2005.