HONG KONG.- A group of promising young Chinese artists offers a stimulating representation of the media art scene today through 40 fascinating new media artworks to be exhibited at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) beginning 24 March.

The exhibition, titled “On the Road: Young Media Artists in China,” will feature the works of 36 young artists selected from major contemporary art institutes and art organisations in mainland China and Hong Kong.

Nine of the artists are from Hong Kong and six are CityU graduates. In addition, six young artists, faculty members from the School of Creative Media (SCM) at CityU, are contributing new media artworks to the show.

The exhibition will showcase how these young artists have moved beyond the idea of “new” versus “old” media, seamlessly combining art and technology. The works also reflect the breadth of knowledge, aesthetic framework and academic contexts of the generation born after the 1970s and 1980s.

First held at the Guan Shanyue Art Museum in Shenzhen last November, the exhibition comes to CityU in an expanded version following extremely positive reviews.

Under the curatorship of Professor Maurice Benayoun from SCM, this vast exhibition fills the CityU Exhibition Gallery as well as two exhibition spaces at SCM, offering an ambitious overview of the current state of media art created by a younger generation.

For the last decade, the new media art scene has grown in size and quality in China, a country highly receptive to innovation. Its own rich and unique history of image-making, painting and calligraphy offers a tradition where time and space, black and white, sound and silence are often juxtaposed in a subtle dialogue made of contrast and complicity. Building on this tradition, young Chinese media artists are digging new paths that leave firm tracks across the drowsy field of contemporary art.

The exhibition is co-organised by CityU, the Guan Shanyue Art Museum in Shenzhen and the Curatorial Committee of the Chinese Artists Association of the Museum.