Newman Huo

    LIN ZHIBIN believes that the image of a person’s back can offer insight into their character.

    The recent graduate of the oil painting department of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in Guangdong Province likes painting people’s portrait from behind.

    In his four paintings “Expression Series III,” he depicts the back of a male classmate who has a long ponytail and is shaking his head. Lin painted them during his junior year.

    “My classmate who came from Maoming, Guangdong Province, had a very long ponytail for years,” said Lin, 24, from Jieyang, Guangdong Province.

    “There was something mysteriously comical about the back of his head, and since then I have been painting the backs of various kinds of people,” he said.

    Unlike Lin, Wang Bo, who graduated with a master’s degree from the mural painting department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, focuses on painting the misty scenes of people in public bath houses in his series of paintings, “Independent at Thirty — Hot Springs.”

    “During my studies in Beijing, one of my hobbies was going with my classmates to public bath houses to bathe in the hot spring water,” said Wang, who was born in Changde, Hunan, in 1982.

    “The sight of people shrouded in mist often made me reflect on time, our lives and the world around us,” he said.

    Wang is now running his workshop in an artists’ community in Chaoyang District, Beijing, determined to become a professional painter.

    Both Lin and Wang’s paintings are being displayed at a joint exhibition in He Xiangning Art Museum, along with about 100 works by 18 other students from the country’s nine major fine arts colleges.

    This is the eighth year He Xiangning Art Museum has invited art students from all over the country to exhibit their works.

    Titled “Fresh Eyes 2011,” this year’s exhibition, which will run until Oct. 28, was curated by Bao Dong, Xie Anyu and Fang Hua.

    According to Xie, one of the three curators, all students participating at the exhibition were born between 1980 and 1989 after the country’s introduction of the one-child policy, and the exhibition showcases the distinctive concepts, styles and languages this generation of artists have employed.

    The generation born in the 80s is known for its optimism, embracing of consumerism, entrepreneurship, and acceptance of its historic role in transforming China into a modern economic superpower.

    It is also distinguished by its increased access to digital media such as computers, MP3 players and mobile phones.

    A clash between tradition and modernity is noticeable in its purchasing habits, career pursuits, and the daily interaction between those born in the 80s and their elders.

    Dates: Until Oct. 28

    Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Closed Monday

    Add: He Xiangning Art Museum, Overseas Chinese Town, Shennan Boulevard, Nanshan District (南山区华侨城何香凝美术馆)

    Buses: 21, 26, 32, 54, 59, 101, 105, 109, 121, 204, 209, 223, 234, 327, 328, 350, 370, 390.

    Metro: OCT Station, (华侨城站), Exit C