Taking printmaking as its medium, “ACCUMULATION” presents a total of 50 artworks by 10 influential artists in the field of contemporary Chinese printmaking including Xu Bing, Sui Jianguo, Zhang Xiaogang, Su Xinping, Wang Huaxiang, Meng Luding, Hong Hao, Chen Qi, Feng Mengbo and Qiu Zhijie, each of them have provided 5 pieces of their works. As they differ in creative backgrounds, their works are naturally related to a variety of art forms such as oil painting, sculpture, installation, and video, which jointly interpret a fantastic integration of contemporary consciousness and traditional printmaking genes.

Xu Bing, Phoenix Picture 2, Micro-voltage printing process, drawing paper: 76×56cm, drawing: 56×40cm, 2014Sui Jianguo, Time and Wormhole 3, Black and white woodcut, 56×76cm, 2019Zhang Xiaogang, Mirror No. 1, Colored drypoint, 48×34cm, 2019Su Xinping, Landscape No. 1, Copperplate etching, 56×76cm, 2019Wang Huaxiang, Virus Wearing Masks No. 1, Black and white woodcut, 76×56cm, 2020

Spanning almost all the current printmaking forms such as drypoint, lithography, silkscreen, digital printing, water-based woodblock printing and so on, the exhibition showcases diversified expressive techniques that have been applied in printmaking from traditional techniques such as line engraving, corrosion, chromatography, mezzotint, to modern techniques such as phototypesetting, micro-voltage printing, mechanical means, and digital technology. The diversified applications of techniques are not only in line with the needs of these artists’ works, but they also represent individualized creative concepts and ways of thinking. What’s more important is that, a collective return to materialization is itself a significant deed in this era of contemporary art and digitization.

Meng Luding, Cinnabar 3-3, Copperplate etching, 72×53cm, 2019Hong Hao, Esperanto, Colored silkscreen, 76×56cm, 2019Chen Qi, Exquisite Pagoda ( A Flexible Turtle), Water-based woodblock printing, 74.3×55cmFeng Mengbo, Little Trumpeter, Colored lithograph, 56×76cm, 2020Qiu Zhijie, Tide, Colored lithograph, 76×56cm, 2019

The content of this exhibition has been continuously enriched in the three-year tour, and now it has finally come to a perfect end at the Art Museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts. In the hope of triggering thinking about the essence through printmaking practices by artists in various fields, “ACCUMULATION” stimulates discussions about how the printmaking genes such “reverse thinking”, “layers of thinking” and “plurality” get along with contemporary art, and it further explores the unique value of printmaking attributes for contemporary art.

The exhibition remains on view until November 24, 2024. 

Courtesy of CAFA Art Museum, trans. and ed. by Sue/CAFA ART INFO.