Art Nova 100 offers young artists showcase for their talents

Art Nova 100's ongoing exhibition looks to find an audience for young artists and their works. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Ever since it was launched in 2011, Art Nova 100, a Beijing-based institution which promotes young artists, mostly aged 35 and below, has helped more than 200 artists find galleries and more than 150 hold their first solo exhibitions.

For Zhao Li, a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, who founded the platform, introducing these newcomers to galleries and art curators is only a part of Art Nova 100's commitment. He also hopes to make them more widely known, by showing their works at spaces that receive a lot of visitors.

That is why the institution started its Art Nova 100 Opening Exhibition at a temporarily-built hall in Ditan Park in the heart of the capital city six years ago.

The annual exhibition shows some 100 artists selected from several hundred applicants across the country. It also tours other cities including Nanjing, Chongqing and Hong Kong.

This year's exhibition is now on at the Today Art Museum, showing paintings, sculptures, installations, videos and newmedia artworks.

"Usually young artists' productions are not as serious as that of established ones," says Zhao. "And a popular public museum like Today Art links viewers to contemporary art and its creators."

The ongoing exhibition, titled Rebuild & Transition, shows two categories of works. One exhibits artists who were featured in previous shows and who have achieved some note, such as oil painter Ju Ting, sculptor Wang Enlai and new-media artist Tian Xiaolei.

Zhao says the current exhibition showcases how they are "restructuring" their visual vocabularies following initial success.