Editor’s Note

Yishu 77 has two distinct highlights. One is the announcement of and publishing of texts by recipients of the Yishu Awards for Critical Writing and Curating on Contemporary Chinese Art. With the generous financial support of Cc Foundation, Shanghai, and JNBY, China, we have expanded the awards to recognize five individuals (an increase from the initial two of past years) who are making important contributions to the evolution of contemporary Chinese art. The recipients for 2016 are Chen Tong as a senior critic or curator, Carol Yinghua Lu and Lu Mingjun for critical writing, and Bao Dong and Echo He for curating.

The other highlight in this issue is the emphasis on alternative or independent artistic and curatorial practices and exhibition spaces. This is not the first time we have explored these aspects of the Chinese art world, and Yishu is one of the few publications that is advancing this discourse within what increasingly is becoming a massive art industry.

In addition to the recipients of the Yishu Awards there are three texts that also explore alternative practices and spaces. They include Michele Chan’s review of Videotage and its 30th anniversary exhibition, Julie Chun’s in-depth examination of four alternative spaces currently active in Shanghai, and Lu Pei-Yi’s discussion of three artists in Taiwan who are engaging in a social exploration that consciously includes those outside of the art world.

Together, the texts in Yishu 77 explore the dynamic world of non-profit or artist-run spaces, various innovative studio and curatorial practices, alternative sites for exhibitions, and the often- misunderstood relationship between art and its publics. It is frequently assumed that there is an impasse between artistic independence and the art market, but the authors here propose there are added complexities within the cultural ecology.

Yishu thanks Cc Foundation, Shanghai, and JNBY, China for their support. We are pleased to include an interview with David Chau, President of Cc Foundation, who discusses the formation of his commitment to contemporary art.

Image (top): Chen Chieh-jen, Realm of Reverberation (detail), 2014, video installation. Courtesy of the artist.

Keith Wallace

Editor’s Note

Performance art has a strong legacy in southwest China, particularly in the city of Chengdu. Sophia Kidd, who previously contributed two texts on performance art in this region (Yishu 44, Yishu 55), updates us on an art medium that has shifted emphasis over the years but continues to maintain its presence and has been welcomed by a new generation of artists.

Painting also figures strongly in Yishu 76. Julie Chun writes on Qu Fengguo, a Shanghai artist who since the 1980s has devoted his career to developing the language of abstraction in his painting. Like Ding Yi, another Shanghai artist of the same generation, he has refined rather than “explored” this genre, in this case creating a body of work that is in dialogue with the passing of time and the change of seasons. In a different vein, Cui Xiuwen, best known for her photographic scenarios of young girls going through adolescence, has more recently turned to abstraction within the context of both Chinese and Western art history.

Outside of abstraction is the idiosyncratic painting of Hangzhou artist Zhou Yilun. Danielle Shang places his work within the realm of “bad painting” and a punk aesthetic, a sensibility that has gained little traction within the mainstream and has come to represent a form of resistance to the accepted art system. Also outside of the mainstream are the paintings of Ying Yefu who brings the tradition of gongbi style painting into contemporary realms. Jacob August Dreyer discusses Ying Yefu’s work within a critique of Shanghai’s current art scene and how the artist maintains his integrity within an industry that is fixated on art as commodity.

Maya Kóvskaya interviews Raqs Media Collective, curators of the 2016 Shanghai Biennale, and queries their approach to curating a large group exhibition and how it has the potential to become an immersive experience that is propositional and conversational.

In conclusion, we present the second installment of Lu Huanzhi’s textual artwork Buried Alive, a comment upon Chinese society and the role of contemporary art within it.

Image (top): Ying Yefu, Samurai Driving Guide, 2015, gongbi ink on Chinese bast paper, 101 x 139 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Art Labor, Shanghai.

Keith Wallace

Editor’s Note

Yishu 75 opens with a text by Shao-Lan Hertel that explores cross-cultural encounters among three artists—Wang Dongling, Roman Verostko, and Andreas Schmid—as it pertains to the evolution of calligraphy in China during the 1980s and into the 90s, a relatively early period for contemporary Chinese art, and the subsequent interaction with aspects of Western abstract art. This is followed by Carol Yinghua Lu’s rumination on the painter Xie Nanxing, whose highly conceptual works both challenge the practice of painting and propose a provocative dialogue between the figurative and the abstract. Adam Monohon writes about Zhang Kechun’s pensive photographs that bring into play interactions between simple daily activities and the signs of social and economic changes that have taken place along China’s vast Yellow River.

Hong Kong has experienced changes of a different kind during the past decade, both socially and culturally, and John Batten offers an update on the Hong Kong art scene and, in particular, the strong assertion of its sense of identity and growing internationalism following the Umbrella Protests of 2014. Issues of identity also arise through perspectives from the Hong Kong diaspora as expressed in the reflections of Alice Ming Wai Jim and Henry Tsang on the recent new media work of susan pui san lok and her dynamic video montage emphasizing the magic and motion of wuxia, a genre that represents for the rest of the world an imaginary China.

Claudia Bohn-Spector discusses an exhibition of new media work from Taiwan and these artists’ exploration of the vulnerable relationship between nature, society, and science. Wang Bing and Lu Huanzhi test the conventions of what constitutes art—the former, as author Brian Karl points out, by showing his documentary-like films of the marginalized in the context of an art gallery in addition to the cinema circuit, the latter by presenting a fictional novel as a work of art. While Lu Huanzhi’s writing functions as an artwork it also serves as an inventive commentary on the condition of the artist and the state of contemporary art within society today.

Image (top): Zhang Kechun, People Drink Tea by the River, from the series Between the Mountains and Water, 2013, archival pigment print, 107.95 x 132 cm. © Zhang Kechun. Courtesy of Beetles + Huxley, London.

Keith Wallace

Editor’s Note

Each of the texts in Yishu 74 has arisen in response to an exhibition, emphasizing the importance of exhibitions as platforms for thinking about questions that exist beyond the artwork itself. Together, these texts—which explore art history, geopolitical contexts, and curatorial intentions—serve to rupture established narratives of history and emblems of nationhood in order to impart a sense of complexity in our understanding of the world.

Xiang Liping writes about the work by Datong Dazhang presented at the Power Station of Art, Shanghai, which brought to attention an artist who was active in the 1980s and 90s but who was virtually overlooked after his death in 2000. Su Wei stresses the necessity to re-examine aspects of conceptual and performance art in the exhibition New Measurement and Qian Weikang, which presented work that was overshadowed during the 1990s by the strong reception of painting and sculpture. Carol Yinghua Lu writes about curating an exhibition of work by Leung Chi Wo. She points out the disjunctures and between Hong Kong artists and those in mainland China, and notes that Hong Kong artists have tended to receive less attention internationally. Stefanie Chou Wanjing interviews Uli Sigg about his process of collecting contemporary Chinese art, his donation to M+, Hong Kong, and the history that his collection represents, which is one that evolved from personal relationships with the artists and direct involvement with the art scene.

History and narrative play a significant role in Lisa Catt’s writing about the work of Chen Qiulin, an artist whose exhibition at 4A Centre in Sydney, Australia, is research-oriented and focuses on the history of Chinese migrants in that city. Narrative arises in another form in Stephanie Bailey’s discussion with Wu Tsang, an artist who recently created a video based on the sexual orientation of two women in mainland China at the turn of the twentieth century, but who supplants a documentary style that embraces ambiguity.

The final three texts discuss the reception of art from China, and other regions, outside of their domestic settings. Aileen Burns and Johan Lundh discuss how the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial, observing that over the years it has expanded its definition of what constitutes the idea of Asia Pacific, as well as its relationship to other biennials internationally. Brian Karl looks at how contemporary Chinese art is represented in the context of Istanbul and the corporate world, and Joni Low suggests how work from another country, in this instance the traditions and spirituality represented in contemporary Taiwanese art and exhibited in Vancouver, can inspire one to see one’s own place differently.

We at Yishu express our condolences for the passing away of Huang Zhuan on April 13, 2016. He was one of China’s most prominent art historians, critics, and curators. He contributed to Yishu and was recipient of the 2011 Yishu Award for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art.

Image (top): Chen Qiulin, Old Archway (detail), 2009, C print, 154 x 124 cm. Courtesy of the artist and A Thousand Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu.

Keith Wallace

Yishu will be participating in Asia Art Archive’s Open Platform at Art Basel Hong Kong on March 24, 4-5:30pm. We will be presenting the Fifth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art followed by a discussion titled “What China?” Please come and join us at the AAA Booth P9, Institutions and Bookstores Area on Level 1 Concourse.

Date: March 24, 4-5:30pm

Venue: AAA Booth P9, Institutions and Bookstores Area on Level 1 Concourse, Art Basel, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre

__________________________

“What China?”

Host: Keith Wallace, Editor-in-Chief, Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Vancouver

Participants:

Stephanie Bailey, Senior Editor, Ibraaz; Contributing Editor, LEAP; Editor-at-large, Ocula

Dong Bingfeng, Artistic Director, OCAT Institute, Beijing

Ingrid Chu, AAA Public Programmes Curator

Julie Chun, Art Historian, Royal Asiatic Society China, Shanghai

Diana Freundl, Associate Curator, Asian Art, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver

Lesley Ma, Curator of Ink, M+, Hong Kong

Zheng Shengtian, Managing Editor, Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art

Key issues including ethnicity, nationhood, political will, globalization, cultural investment, and the art market. A discussion on the complexities inherent in attempting to describe, discuss, and challenge the definition of contemporary Chinese art. How has the designation of “Chinese” in contemporary Chinese art become a generalization that sidesteps the acknowledgement of differing, and at times contradictory, histories not only within mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, but also its extensive diaspora?

__________________________

About the Fifth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art

Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art is pleased to announce the recipients of the Fifth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art. Two jurors who have an extensive history with contemporary Chinese art each were invited to make one autonomous recommendation: Julia F. Andrews, Distinguished University Professor of Art History at Ohio State University, who has long experience with writing about and curating exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art, selected Lesley Ma. Gao Shiming, an internationally renowned scholar, curator, and critic on contemporary Chinese art, selected Dong Bingfeng. Each award carries a value of $5,000 CAD. Past award recipients include Maya Kóvskaya and Sheng Wei, in 2010; Zhu Qi and Huang Zhuan, in 2011; Lu Peng and Yu-Ling Chou, in 2012; and Cui Cancan and Anthony Yung, in 2013.

The Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art are important to the mandate of Yishu, which recognizes a diversity of voices that are expressed through a variety of writing styles addressing the specific issues that are of interest to them. The Awards were established to encourage and recognize emerging writers who are making an outstanding contribution to understanding the history and current issues that surround the vast realm of contemporary Chinese art.

Image: (left) Lesley Ma, (right) Dong Bingfeng.

Editor’s Note

Yishu 73 opens with a text on the innovative handmade puppets developed by Shanghai artist Maleonn. Puppetry is an area of creative practice that has received scant attention from the art world, and Maleonn’s incorporation of various found objects into the construction of his theatrical presentations demonstrates the kind of resourcefulness and imagination that is characteristic of the bricoleur. This aesthetic and approach to art making is also found in our first feature on Hong Kong legend Frog King, an industrious artist who is equally theatrical through his interactive happenings and his tendency to integrate found objects into his collages and assemblages.

Completely opposite to the bountiful aesthetic of Maleonn and Frog King is the painting and sculpture of Korean artist Lee Ufan, a pioneer in the Mono-ha art movement which emerged in Japan in the 1970s, and whose work represents another kind of richness, one that is minimalist and exhibits influences derived from Korean, Japanese, and Chinese artistic traditions and literature.

The ghost of socialist realism appears in the exhibition Really, Socialism?!, as well as in the conceptual underpinnings of work by Liu Ding and Jin Shan, all of which are explored in this issue. Often dismissed as an archaic artistic practice, socialist realism here comes under renewed scrutiny in each of these three texts—not as an effort to revive it, but to bring forward new considerations in understanding its legacy within the present moment.

In conclusion, Yishu 73 presents artists and histories that have sometimes been overlooked, like Maleonn’s puppetry, both within the canon of art history and in the definition of what constitutes fine art. Maryn Varbanov was a significant figure in the evolution of contemporary Chinese art during the 1980s and contributed greatly not only to the practice of textile art, or “soft sculpture,” but to challenging longstanding traditions in painting and sculpture that led to the advent of installation art in China. This issue concludes with a conversation with Siu King-Chung about his Community Museum Project, which brings together visual art, design, and politics to create collective endeavours—often involving those who might be considered non-artists—that reflect upon social protest, local initiatives, and urban redevelopment as they have emerged in Hong Kong’s recent history.

Keith Wallace

Image (top): Jin Shan, installation view of Divine Ruse, 2015, plastic, steel. Photo: Alessandro Wang. Courtesy of the artist and BANK, Shanghai.

Yishu is delighted to be a media partner of India Art Fair, which opens from January 28-31, 2016.

About the Fair

India Art Fair is South Asia’s leading platform for modern and contemporary art and portal to the region’s cultural landscape. Founded in 2008, India Art Fair has become the bedrock of a now booming cultural community with connections to every level of the market.

Building on these foundations, India Art Fair is expanding its programming to reflect South Asia’s immense diversity in the visual arts and to provide a platform for innovation across disciplines and exchange, throughout the region and the world.

Open to Public: January 28-31, 2016

Venue: NSIC grounds, Okhla Industrial Area, New Delhi

Opening Hours:

January 29th – 30th, 2016 (Friday and Saturday)

Public Hours: 2 PM – 8 PM

January 31st, 2016 (Sunday)

Public Hours: 11 AM – 7 PM

Tickets can be ordered online at http://in.bookmyshow.com/events/india-art-fair-2016/ET00037321

For more info, please visit: http://www.indiaartfair.in

Yishu is delighted to be a media partner of Art Stage Singapore, which opens from January 21-24, 2016

About the Fair

Art Stage Singapore is the leading Asian art fair connecting the world to the best of Asian contemporary art. With a deep understanding of Asia’s dynamic visual arts scene, Art Stage Singapore presents the diversity of contemporary art rising from the region. At the crossroads among Southeast Asia, China, India, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, Art Stage Singapore is also the catalyst for igniting heightened market activity in the the entire Southeast Asia region, attracting the world’s most influential private art collectors, corporate buyers and VIPs.

Presenting handpicked galleries from Asian and Western countries that complement each other, Art Stage Singapore promotes dialogue not only between Asia and the West but also amongst the countries of the Asian region as well. Art Stage Singapore’s consistent support of Asian galleries, artists and art practices positions the Fair as the region’s international voice, representing the interests of Asian contemporary art in the global arena.

With its strong Asian identity and its support of art scenes in the region, Art Stage Singapore cooperates with Asian galleries, artists and collectors to create a distinctive partnership and networking platform. Art Stage Singapore features a three to one ratio of Asian to western galleries. Asia is often perceived as a seamless and interconnected region. The fact is, however, that the art scenes of Asia remain fragmented and disconnected from one another. Art Stage Singapore is bridging this divide with the introduction of an innovative new format that allows for a diverse, considered and comprehensive presentation of the best contemporary art from Asia.

With a special focus on Southeast Asian art scenes (Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar), Art Stage Singapore presents the largest international showcases of Southeast Asian contemporary art to date. Art Stage Singapore is not only the “agora” or forum for the galleries and collectors but also the rendezvous point for collectors, artists, curators and gallerists. It facilitates and encourages discourse on Asia’s contemporary art scenes, and brings art specialists and enthusiasts together, under one roof.

Open to Public: January 21-24, 2016

Venue: Marina Bay Sands

10 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore, 018956

Opening Hours:

January 21, 2016 (Thu): 12pm–8pm

January 22, 2016 (Fri): 12pm–7pm

January 23, 2016 (Sat): 11am–7pm

January 24, 2016 (Sun): 11am–6pm

For more info, please visit: http://www.artstagesingapore.com

Editor’s Note

Yishu 72 is pleased to present essays by Dong Bingfeng and Lesley Ma, recipients of the Fifth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art. These awards are the result of recommendations made by two important figures in contemporary Chinese art—this year Julia F. Andrews and Gao Shiming. The jurors selected an emerging writer whom they believe is making meaningful contributions in the field of art. Dong Bingfeng has provided a text on artist Feng Mengbo, an early practitioner of new media in China, and Lesley Ma discusses the work Chuang Che, a pioneering Taiwanese modernist of the 1960s.

We are also featuring Yan Shanchun, an artist who over the past few decades has turned his attention to developing an innovative printmaking process. This is followed by two texts on Canadian artists, Jamelie Hassan and Andy Patton, whose work was featured in the 2014 exhibition Transformation of Canadian Landscape Art: Inside and Outside of Being at the Xi’an Art Museum. In the work of Hassan and Patton we see not how the West influenced the East, as suggested in the texts on Chuang Che and Yan Shanchun, but how the East has influenced the West. In the case of Patton this is evident in the melding of the visual and the literary inherent in calligraphy that inform his work, and Hassan brings into the present a historical relationship between Xi’an, Istanbul, and Cairo in her site-specific installation for the library of the Great Mosque of Xi’an.

Ornella De Nigris explores how the art infrastructure in mainland China has shifted during the past four decades from what was considered the binaries of official and nonofficial art to a point where such distinctions no longer usefully exist and where contemporary Chinese art has found its way into the international art scene.

The final two texts on Cai Guo-Qiang and Xu Bing, among China’s most celebrated artists, focus on their long-term projects that engage non-art communities, an aspect of contemporary art making that Yishu has explored over the years. With their projects, Peasants da Vincis and Forest Project, both artists have set out not only to challenge the role of institutions, but, perhaps more importantly, to question what constitutes art.

Keith Wallace

Image (top): Chuang Che, Where There’s True Feeling, There’s Form; Where There’s a True Brush, There’s Expression (details), 1965, oil and collage on canvas, 76.7 x 112.5 cm. Courtesy of the artist.

Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art is pleased to announce the recipients of the Fifth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art. Two jurors who have an extensive history with contemporary Chinese art each were invited to make one autonomous recommendation: Julia F. Andrews, Distinguished University Professor of Art History at Ohio State University, who has long experience with writing about and curating exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art, selected Lesley Ma. Gao Shiming, an internationally renowned scholar, curator, and critic on contemporary Chinese art, selected Dong Bingfeng. Each award carries a value of $5,000 CAD. Past award recipients include Maya Kóvskaya and Sheng Wei, in 2010; Zhu Qi and Huang Zhuan, in 2011; Lu Peng and Yu-Ling Chou, in 2012; and Cui Cancan and Anthony Yung, in 2013.

The Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art are important to the mandate of Yishu, which recognizes a diversity of voices that are expressed through a variety of writing styles addressing the specific issues that are of interest to them. The Awards were established to encourage and recognize emerging writers who are making an outstanding contribution to understanding the history and current issues that surround the vast realm of contemporary Chinese art. There is no submission process and recipients are given no prior notice that they are being considered.

Julia F. Andrews notes:

“Lesley Ma’s interests include abstract paintings in postwar Taiwan and modern and contemporary art in the Pacific Rim region. Her engagements span the historical and the contemporary, the local and the international, and art forms that cross mediums and disciplines. Her work is revelatory in tracing what are significant roots for Taiwan’s contemporary art, as well as forgotten movements on the island that developed in parallel to the much better known work from Japan and the West during the same period. In her text on Chuang Che, she goes beyond to challenge simple binaries, East or West, modernity or tradition, to examine this artist’s richly textured career, pioneering a generation of Taiwan’s modernists. Well-framed historically in the context of the 1960s, the cross-disciplinary artistic scene that Lesley Ma describes also reverberates with concerns that remain at the core of contemporary East Asian art.”

Gao Shiming observes:

“As the mirror of representation has become broken in today’s context of art criticism, we can no longer reach its centre or fringes, but face the cracks inside the mirror—the inner frontiers of ideology. What is reflected in this fractured mirror is no longer any intact reality but fragments that overlap, intersect and contradict. In this condition, the subject is constantly being recomposed, tradition added, and reality waiting to be actualized. While the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ are fragmented, ‘we’ and ‘they’ are at all times drifting, incessantly displacing each other’s identities.”

“Situated in these complex circumstances, Dong Bingfeng’s writing becomes particularly meaningful. His personal writing and publishing experiences are inseparable. In the past ten years, he has worked relentlessly in editing and publishing to immensely enrich the theoretical resources concerning the contemporary Chinese art scene, constructing a comprehensive and adequate toolbox of discourses for art critics. His personal writings traverse the intersected zones of film, theory, art history, and art criticism. His publications contribute especially to the genealogical studies of films, videos, and documentaries within the gallery system. A scholarly writer, Dong Bingfeng has considerable respect for artists. He is also an attentive reader. As a critic who excels in critical thinking, he manifests sufficient vigilance and awareness of the realistic scenarios of contemporary art.”

The Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art are made possible by Stephanie Holmquist and Mark Allison, Li Lin and JNBY, Amelia Aihong Gao, Van Art Farm, and the Yishu Initiative of Contemporary Chinese Art Society.

Image: (left) Lesley Ma, (right) Dong Bingfeng.

2015 Yishu中国当代艺评奖发布

我们很荣幸地宣布“Yishu中国当代艺评奖”2015年的获奖名单。和往年一样，两位负有声望的国内外学者被邀请担任本届评选人：长期研究中国现当代艺术，并策划过许多重要展览的美国俄亥俄州立大学艺术史教授安雅兰（Julia M. Andrews）推选了马唯中（Lesley Ma）；国际知名学者、策展人和批评家、中国美术学院副院长高士明教授推选了董冰峰。每位获奖者将各获得5000加元奖金与奖状，其代表性论文将于2016年1月号的Yishu杂志上发表。

“Yishu中国当代艺评奖”自2010年起颁发。历年担任特邀评选人的有：高名潞、林似竹（Britta Erickson）、侯瀚如、凯伦（Karen Smith）、巫鸿、王嘉骥、杨天娜（Martina Köppel-Yang）和栗宪庭。以往的获奖人包括盛葳、迈涯（Maya Kovskaya）、黄专、朱其 、周郁龄、吕澎、翁子健和崔灿灿。

安雅兰指出：“马唯中的研究方向包括战后台湾抽象绘画和太平洋地区的现当代艺术，涵盖了传统与当代、本土与国际、以及跨媒介和领域的艺术形式，对追寻台湾当代艺术的独特源流，了解与同时期西方和日本艺术并行、但却不为人知的台湾艺术运动，有很大的启示性。在有关庄喆的论文中，她突破了简单化的东方与西方、现代与传统的二元论，对艺术家作为一代台湾现代主义先锋的丰富多彩的艺术生涯做了深入的研究分析。马唯中以1960年代的历史情境为框架所阐述的跨领域艺术现场回应了当代东亚艺术仍然关注的核心问题。”

高士明认为：“在今天的艺术批评语境中，表象之镜已经破裂，我们再也无法抵达镜子的中心或边缘，我们面对的是表象之镜内部的裂痕——那是意识形态的内部边疆。这面破裂的镜子中映照出的，不再是完整如一的现实，而是彼此交叠、穿插、矛盾着的碎片。在这一境况中，主体是被不断重组的，传统是被追加的，现实是有待实现的，自我和他者都是破碎的，‘我们’和‘他们’随时在漂移，并且不断互换着身份。“

他说：“在这一复杂境遇中，董冰峰的写作具有特殊的意义。他的个人写作与他的出版工作是分不开的。十年来，他不懈的编辑与出版工作极大地丰富了中国当代艺术界的理论资源，为艺术批评圈建构了一个齐全有效的话语工具箱。他的个人写作，则始终浪迹于电影、理论、艺术史与艺术批评的交叠地带。在他的著作中，他对美术馆机制中电影、录像、纪录片等‘影像’的系谱学研究尤其具有贡献。作为一个学究气的写作者，他对艺术家有足够的尊重，他是一位悉心的读者。作为一位具有反思精神的批评家，他对于当代艺术的现实处境表现出了足够的警醒和认识。”

“Yishu中国当代艺评奖”由《Yishu：Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art （典藏国际版）》倡议设立，为了表彰对认识理解中国当代艺术历史与现状做出卓越贡献的学者。评选的方法采取推荐制，体现了本刊的一贯宗旨：鼓励艺术批评领域中的多种声音，包括各自关注的不同问题和多样的写作风格，以促进对中国当代艺术有独到见解的严肃的艺术批评。

“Yishu中国当代艺评奖”首届颁奖仪式和研讨会于2010年9月在西安美术馆举行。最近两届颁奖与学术讨论会均在香港巴塞尔艺术博览会期间，与亚洲艺术文献库合作在香港会展中心举办。

“Yishu中国当代艺评奖”由加拿大和中国的公益团体与私人赞助。包括Stephanie Holmquist 和Mark Allison、 李琳、高爱红、Van Art Farm 和Yishu Initiative of Contemporary Chinese Art Society.