REVIEW: "My Generation: Young Chinese Artists" @ Tampa Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg
“My Generation: Young Chinese Artists,” the first exhibition in the United States to exclusively feature the post-Mao generation of Chinese artists, showcases painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and video by 27 artists from mainland China that were born after 1976—the year of Mao Zedong’s death. Organized by American journalist and independent curator Barbara Pollack, the exhibition examines five expansive themes—personal relationships, family, politics, urban environment and religion—and is shown at both the Tampa Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, in Florida.
“You have to really throw out stereotypes of Chinese contemporary art when you look at these works. These artists are rebelling against the commercialization of China, which they see the older generation of artists as having done,” Pollack stated during a walkthrough of the show. “Between the older generation of artists and this generation, it’s as though they grew up in two different countries and two different centuries,” she added. “[The latter] come from all over China and from all kinds of economic backgrounds, but mainly live in Beijing or Shanghai for career reasons.”
