Shanshui is a distinctly Chinese term—combining two characters 山水, “mountain” and “water”—that refers not only to the essential elements of landscape but also to the way that we humans understand and commune with the natural environment through art. This exhibition highlights a new generation of artists who are reinterpreting traditional Chinese landscape painting in the context of today’s global social issues and climate crisis. Finding inspiration in the moral and spiritual resolve symbolized by ancient shanshui paintings and fueled by noisy social discourses and alarming empirical realities, this new generation of Chinese artists approaches landscape art with intersecting concerns. In an era when humans are directly affecting the Earth’s climate, leaving distinctive marks on the geological record, possibly even to the point of extinction, these artists adopt the Chinese tradition of shanshui to conjure metaphoric, rather than purely descriptive, visions of nature—visual manifestations that address contemporary life and society’s urgent needs. 

Shan Shui Reboot presents more than 40 visually spectacular and thought-provoking creations by seven established and emerging artists born between 1974-1992, including Lam Tung Pang, Peng Wei, Fu Xiaotong, Yang Yongliang, Ni Youyu, Yi Xin Tong, and Kelly Wang.

More information available at China Institute.