Chinese contemporary art has become a major force in the world art market. There is tremendous interest outside China in the prices that Chinese art commands (stories about record prices routinely run in the New York Times and elsewhere), but virtually no academic or intellectual interest in the content of the art. In Western countries that have specialists in Chinese art—principally in North America and Europe —only a handful of scholars are concerned with developments in contemporary Chinese art. In terms of Western scholarship, contemporary Chinese art is growing in a vacuum: there is very little serious, historically informed, philosophic or critical writing about contemporary Chinese art by Western scholars. By contrast, the most successful Western contemporary artists have attracted the attention of serious historians and critics as well as those who report on the market, or write texts for exhibition catalogs.

This is the first conference—and it will be the first book—to take a serious look at what it means that a major force in international contemporary art is flourishing with almost no European or North American account of its meaning or significance.

The event is free and open to all. Contact us through the website for more information.