Young artists question frail personal relations in modern world

Compared with their predecessors from the 1990s, young artists in China today enjoy much greater exposure. They exhibit more, at museums, galleries and art fairs both at home and abroad. Many of them even start to make money from their work while still in college.

But Zhao Wenjiao, a curator in Beijing, says artists face more competition today than before as their artworks need to evolve and resonate with audiences and critics for them to stay on the market.

Zhao is behind an ongoing exhibition titled Grasping the Normality Within the Abnormality in Beijing's 798 art compound that showcases the paintings and installations by 16 artists who are in their 20s and 30s. The pieces show the diversity of their approaches and reveal a development in thought that will promote them to a higher level of creativity, she says.