Yunnan is also known as “Shangri-La”, which also means “The sun and moon in the heart,” representing the ideal peaceful country that people yearn to live in. For the art world, Yunnan is the birth place for the high-ranked artists in Chinese Contemporary Art market, artists such as Mao Xuhui, Zhang Xiaogang, Ye Yongqing, Pan Dehai, Tang Zhigang, … etc. all come from the culturally-rich Yunnan. Soka Art Center is proud to invite internationally-known curator, Victoria Lu, as the curator for one of the most important exhibition of the year, “The Seed from the Cradle of Yunnan - Yunnan Artists Group Exhibition.”

Yunnan is not only Shargri-La, it is also one of the earliest places in China to promote Chinese Contemporary Art: the first exhibition of contemporary art after the Cultural Revolution, the Shenshe exhibition, was held successfully in Kunming in 1980. Afterwards, these influential artists established the fist art community in China, LOFT, leading the trend in Chinese Contemporary Art, which was well-recognized and respected. Through the 30 years of development in Chinese Contemporary Art, Mao Xuhui is one of the artists that absorbs western modern artistic theories and ideas most thoroughly, and established himself as “the important leading person in the Southwest artists group” through narrative symbolism.

Many scholars have deemed Mao Xuhui as one of the most worth-researching artists in the “85 New Wave - The Birth of Chinese Contemporary Art” held by Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing in 2007. Mao is the first artist ever been invited by Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai to hold a solo exhibition after it is established. Guo Xiaoyan, the deputy director of Minsheng Art Museum, believes that Mao is an “undervalued artist” both in the market and in academic, and made Mao the first subject of case study in Minsheng Contemporary Research Center for Contemporary Art. Mao is not only highly recognized in academic, the price for his artworks has grown 552% in the international art auction market from the period of 2006 to 2010. His work, “'92 Paternalism” set the artist’s highest price in record for NT47,440,000 bidding price. The academic and market value for Yunnan artists has begun to emerge in the Chinese Contemporary Art market.

Recognizing the seed of Yunnan Contemporary Art has already begun to grow into rich fruit in the Chinese Art market, Soka Art Center sees itself as the leading pioneer to bring Yunnan Contemporary Art to the Taiwan art market, inviting famous curator, Victoria Lu, to plan “The Seed from the Cradle of Yunnan – Yunnan Artists Group Exhibition,” led by Mao Xuhui and his friends and students to systematically introduced Yunnan Contemporary Art to Taiwan. During this trip to Taiwan, they will join with one of an important art society in Taiwan, “The Southern Taiwan Art Society” to visit and draw in Tainan Confucian Temple, integrating the rich-culture they possess in themselves into Taiwan local culture, and promote culture exchange between China and Taiwan. This particular event is also an activity for public welfare; for the works finished by these artists on March 28 will be auctioned later that night, and the auctioned earning will all be donated to World Vision Taiwan to help the less-fortunate children in Tainan. The representatives from World Vision Taiwan and the children will also attend this event hosted jointly by Soka Art Center, HC R.E.D. Com., and Nine Ink Stones R.E.D. Com. We cordially invite the audience to enter the ideal artistic Yunnan atmosphere in Soka Art Center, to experience the artistic Shangri-la from these 10 Yunnan artists.

Curator: Lu Victoria

Artist: Mao Xuhui, Zhang Xiaogang, Jin Zhiqiang, Hu Xiaogang , Wu Jun, Liu Yawei, Pu Yan, Xun Guipin, Tao Fa, Li Rui