In the Spring Festival of 2017, jointly hosted by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Consulate-General in New York, and jointly organized by CAFA and the US-China Institute, "Happy Chinese New Year: Fantastic Art China" New York Events was successfully held again in New York.

Fan Di'an, President of CAFA served as the director-general of the event, Yu Ding, Dean of the Institute of Arts Administration and Education, CAFA served as the chief curator, and Huang Jiancheng, Deputy Dean of the School of Urban Design, CAFA served as the chief designer.

2017 "Happy Chinese New Year: Fantastic Art China" New York Series of Events takes the "Year of the Rooster Light of Gold" as the overall theme, intended to borrow the brightness and the auspicious meaning of hope asimplied by the Year of the Rooster, through the projects of "art" and "education"projects, as well as public art activities to promote Sino-US cultural expression, dialogue and understanding, to convey the good intention to commonly construct the cultural prosperity of the future.

The "Happy Chinese New Year: Fantastic Art China" is composed of three parts: Celebration Activities, Art Exhibitions, Public and Art Educational Events. It runs through many mainstream cultures and architectural landmarks in the Upper, Middle and Lower New York City and it brings a series of rich cultural and artistic activities for the citizens of New York, from January 23 to January 31.

As a continuation of the tradition of the previous two "Fantastic Art China", exhibition events designed by the School of Design at CAFA, the Empire State Building Light Installation and Hudson River Themed Fireworks Show lit up the night sky of New York on the evening of January 26 again, which acted as the prelude of the 2017 New Year celebration.

At 10:00 on January 26, Zhang Qiyue, Chinese Consulate-General in New York and John B Kessler, President and Chief Operating Officer of the Empire State Building Group co-chaired the ceremony for the Chinese Lunar New Year at the Empire State Building. Designed by the School of Design at CAFA, Empire State Building Light Installation was lit up at sunset on January 26 and January 27, a set of colors cyclically changed every 60 seconds, adding a color of the Chinese New Year to the skyline of New York.

At 8:30 pm on January 26, designed by the School of Design at CAFA, 2017 Happy Chinese New Year: Fantastic Art China thematic fireworks show blossomed over the Hudson River. The fireworks were composed of "Winter", "Birds", "Spring is Back" and " the Appearance of the Phoenix", the flow of the natural season and the images of "Birds", "Phoenix" was blended in the traditional Chinese philosophy of the harmonious development of nature, all things and civilization. A specially designed fireworks show brought a visual spring feast to the people of New York, and transferred blessings from the ancient Chinese festivities.

After New York School of Interior Design "Abstract Art in Dialogue" opened on January 23, the 9-day "Happy Chinese New Year: Fantastic Art China" series of events successively kicked off and the thematic exhibition was held at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea on the afternoon of January 26. On the basis of the previous two sessions, the "Art Exhibition" focused more on the academic and systematic nature of the exhibition, it was divided into four thematic exhibitions, including the artistic concepts around "imagery" and "abstraction", that originated from different cultural backgrounds and visual traditions, and curated the special exhibitions "Impressionistic Form and Imagery: Oriental Spirit of the Art" and "Abstract Art of Dialogue"; taking "Cross-Cultural Dialogue" as the concept to curate the "China and America Young Artists Exhibition" and "China and America Art Alliance Exhibition".

The "Abstract Art in Dialogue" exhibition at the New York Institute of Interior Design Gallery was co-curated by Dr. Qian Zhijian, a professor of art history at the City University of New York and the School of Interior Design in New York City, and invited nine artists from different cultures and traditions, they took a variety of creative techniques and artistic perspectives such as "action abstraction", "concept abstraction", "geometric abstraction", "color field abstraction", "lyrical abstraction" and "abstract expressionism", to create a new exploration and contribution to the new development possibilities in abstract art in a contemporary context.

Curated by Prof. Yu Ding from CAFA, "Impressionistic Form and Imagery: Oriental Spirit in Art" showcases the works by 16 contemporary Chinese artists including Shang Yang, Hong Yao, Ma Lu, Su Xinping, Zhan Wang, Lv Pinchang, Miao Xiaochun, Zhang Fangbai, Xiang Yang, Huang Yong, Qiu Ting, Cai Zhisong , Mou Baiyan, Feng Fang, Huang Zhen, Wu Jian'an. These artists apply different creative mediums and artistic language to extend the tradition of "impressionistic form" of traditional Chinese ink painting art in the contemporary artistic creation, formed a new appearance of contemporary Chinese "imagery" art.

Taken the "Cross-Cultural Dialogue" as the curating idea, the "China and America Young Artists Exhibition" and "China-America Art Colleges Alliance Exhibition" aim at presenting the creative issues, exploring patterns and expressive methods of the younger generation of artists in China and the United States, as well as the influence from different teaching systems and social environments, while it showcases how the intercultural approaches help us to understand and appreciate the unique qualities of these artists.

Themed "Art and New Urban Culture", the "China and America Art Students Exhibition" aims through different art and technological media to explore the artists from different regions, cultural backgrounds and art teaching systems in the context of globalization, concerning, exploring and expressing the different appearances in the process of urban culture. The participating artists come from the art schools in Beijing and New York, including Columbia University, School of Visual Arts, the Art Institute of New York City (New York), CAFA, Beijing Film Academy, Tsinghua University, Beijing Normal University, Capital Normal University.

"Education" is another essential content of "Happy Chinese New Year: Fantastic Art China". With the support and assistance of Beijing Visual Art Innovation Center and New York School of Interior Design, 2017 "China-America Art College Alliance Project" continues to push on. The project aims to further enhancing dialogues and exchanges in the field of higher art education between China and the United States, including the "Experimental Film Exchange Exhibition", "China-America Art College Alliance Exhibition Seminar" , "China-America Art College Alliance Exchange Program", which are an extension of the "China-America Art College Alliance Exhibition".

As one of the new projects this year, the "Experimental Film Exchange Exhibition" opened at the Arthur Satz Auditorium in New York School of Interior Design on Jan. 23. The exhibition featured 14 works by outstanding students from the Chinese representative art institutions such as CAFA, the China Academy of Art, and Beijing Film Academy. The works cover a wide range of films, animation and experimental images, showcasing the young Chinese artists' perspective and unique thoughts on individual emotions and memories of the social process. It included the "Maicheng", "Monkey" and the "Wild Child". "Experimental Film Exchange Exhibition" was jointly curated by Prof. Yu Ding, Prof. Qian Zhijian and Dr.Yu Fan.

"China-America Art College Alliance Exchange Program" first invited the representative artists of the "China-America Art College Alliance Exhibition" to visit New York, and it was led by Wang Chuan, Director of Development Planning Department at CAFA, to start a 8-Day visit to the School of Visual Arts on January 23, to visit the School of Visual Arts, Parsons, New York Academy of Art, Pratt Institute and Fashion Institute of Technology, in order to explore new possibilities for cooperation with higher education in the future.

Text by CAFA Institute of Arts Administration and Education, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO