Helen Deng

    deng.hneng@gmail.com

    A GROUP of people are looking at a corpse. The onlookers are full of life, but the corpse, which is the center of attention, is white, flat and featureless. The abstract subject and the vivid observers create a thought-provoking narrative.

    This is one of the “Inopportune” series by Hu Wei of China Central Academy of Fine Arts, on exhibition at He Xiangning Art Museum.

    The museum is holding an exhibition of artworks by recent graduates of various art schools in China.

    “Fresh Eyes 2012,” an annual exhibition of paintings from national art academies across China that runs until Sept. 23, shows 167 works of 25 fresh graduates from nine of the country’s top art schools.

    This year’s “Fresh Eyes” is the first group show of artists born after 1990, a generation largely thought of as being selfish and materialistic.

    Sheng Wei, one of the curators of the exhibition, believes that the principles of “self-decision, self-design, self-control, egoism” are no longer universally held by young artists.

    “A new subject is taking shape: It is defined and changed by multiple relations and tries to converse and negotiate with the world,” said Sheng. Thus the theme of the exhibition is “Dispersed Subject.”

    The exhibition explores relations between the young and the rest of society, according to Sheng. The paintings are divided into five sections: “Thoughts,” “Dream,” “Broken Glass,” “Naive Eyes” and “Nostalgia.”

    The scene of a girl sitting amid swimming fish represents the ideal world of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts graduate Tan Yueyu. Inspired by well-known Chinese tale “A Tale of the Fountain of the Peach Blossom Spring,” Tan’s painting has a similar theme but its message is much sadder than the tale. Sheng sees the artwork, and other works in the “Dream” section, as a reflection of life pressure.

    At “Some,” a series of stamp-like oil paintings by Yao Peng of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, the artist creates images of historic figures such as Mao Zedong in his old age, thus creating an absurdist, humorous effect about a seemingly serious topic.

    “Journey in Midsummer,” among the “Nostalgia” section, shows an abandoned factory house that was once a symbol of socialist prosperity. The artist, Nie Hefu from Academy of Art and Design of Qinghua University, is nostalgic for a past that he mostly learned about through the media, said Sheng.

    First held in 2004, the “Fresh Eyes” exhibitions have been held for nearly a decade. It witnessed the growth of the artists born after 1980 and is now welcoming artists born in the 1990s. The extreme egoism that was seen in the previous “Fresh Eyes” exhibitions has been replaced by a “dispersed subject,” thus creating a “new culture and artistic context,” said Sheng.

    Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. (closed Mondays)

    Add: Overseas Chinese Town, Nanshan District, Shenzhen

    Web site: www.hxnart.com

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    Metro: OCT Station (华侨城站), Exit C