From/To: the Frontier of Chinese Art Education

This year marks the 50th anniversary of 1968. California played an important role in the historical scene of 1968. What sort of attitude should we have when we face the art, cultural and social movements that changed the world 50 years ago today? How to reflect on the two revolutionary desires of California in the past: a cultural/life revolution carried out by hippies and the digital/technological revolution with computers? How to consider the “Californian ideology” based on cybernetics, free-market economics, and counter-cultural liberalism that has become ubiquitous around the globe?

2018 also marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of the China Academy of Art. On this occasion, we organized the exhibition From/To: the Frontier of Chinese Art Education (November 16–December 9) at the San Francisco Art Institute, as well as the symposium “Poverty of Sensibility—Art / Education in the 21st Century III” (November 16–17). 

Works by 42 artists (groups) from CAA are showing in the two campuses of SFAI, and more than 20 prolific thinkers, artists and educators from China and the United States participated in the symposium, and Gao Shiming, Steven Henry Madoff, David Joselit, Ivan Gaskell, Trinh T. Minh-ha gave keynote speeches. 

Exhibition structure

Prelude   
From / To Art: 90 Questions

Scene 1: Chestnut Street campus
Part 1—Sign: Eight Silhouettes
Part 2—Zaohua/Creation I: Shanshui Manifesto
Part 3—Zaohua II: Mind Cosmos

Interlude：Questions from Time

Special projects
Back to “Lonely” (Gu) Mountain  
Century—a Proposal  
Weaving: From one to one

Scene 2: Fort Mason campus
Part 1—Stroll: The Shanshuilization of the Human   
Part 2—Painting: “I saw, I painted, I thought”

Venues：SFAI—Chestnut Street campus (800 Chestnut Street); SFAI—Fort Mason campus (2 Marina Boulevard, Pier 2)

Opening：November 16, 6pm at SFAI—Chestnut Street campus
Organizers: China Academy of Art, San Francisco Art Institute
Co-organizer: China Institute for Visual Studies, CAA
Producer: Xu Jiang
Curator: Gao Shiming
Vice Curator: Su Chengcheng
Curatorial Team: Lee Chialin, Wang Dongliang, Peng Wanxin
Special Consultant: Ren Ming

Artists: Cai Feng, Cao Xiaoyang, Chang Qing, Chen Haiyan, Fang Liming, Gao Shiqiang+Institute of Spatial Image, Guan Huaibin, Han Likun, Huang Jun, Jiao Xiaojian, Jing Shijian, Kong Guoqiao, Li Ming, Lin Haizhong, Liu jian, Liu Wei, Lu Lei, Lu Yang, Luo Ying, Qiu Zhijie, Ren Yi, Shao Wenhuan, Shi Bing&Maria Ganeva, Shi Hui, Tong Biao, Wang Chao, Wang Dongling, Wang Jianwei, Wang Xin, Wang Zan, Wei Xiaorong, Wu Qiong & Wang Yang, Xu Jiang, Yang Canjun, Yang Fudong, Yao Cong, Yao Dajuin+Open Media, Yi Lian, Yu Xuhong, Zhang Gumin, Zhang Jie, Zheng Li

Visual Design: Chen Zhengda, Wu Weichen
Symposium Executive: Tang Xiaolin
Space Design: Zhao Deli, Ruan Hao
Special Thanks: Chang Tsongzung, Long March Space, ShanghART Gallery, HOW Art Museum