Yang Fudong has opened his largest solo exhibition to date, 'Fragrant River,' at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. The show features over 30 works and eight hours of video, including major new installations like the five-channel 'Young Man, Young Man' and the furniture-and-video piece 'Breastfeeding,' which immerse viewers in scenes from the artist's hometown of Xianghe.
An exhibition titled 'Homage to the Virtuosos: From Leonardo da Vinci to Caravaggio - Masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance' has opened at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, featuring 36 Renaissance masterpieces from Italy's Uffizi Galleries. The show includes works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Caravaggio, with many pieces traveling to China for the first time. The exhibition is jointly curated by the National Art Museum of China and the Uffizi Galleries, and is divided into three thematic sections tracing the evolution of Renaissance painting, from early Florentine masters through Mannerism to Venetian and Caravaggio's revolutionary works.
An exhibition titled "Homage to the Virtuosos: From Leonardo da Vinci to Caravaggio -- Masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance" has opened at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing. The show features 36 masterpieces by more than 20 renowned Italian artists from the 15th to the 17th centuries, including Botticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael, with most works on display in China for the first time. Chinese painter Jin Shangyi was present to introduce Bronzino's "The Portrait of Lorenzo the Magnificent" to visitors.
Beijing's art week, rebranded as the Beijing Art Season, ran from 22 May to 1 June, featuring three concurrent events: Art021 Beijing (formerly JingArt) at a new venue in the 798 Art District, Gallery Weekend Beijing (GWBJ), and the fair Beijing Dangdai. The 798 gallery complex merged with the adjacent 751 complex, becoming the 798 751 Art District. GWBJ scaled back this year, suspending its curated selling exhibition and international visiting sector, instead hosting only one pop-up gallery. Organizers cited economic struggles and tariffs as challenges, with gallerists reporting slower sales and cancelled US orders due to new tariffs.
Yanran Chen (b. 2005) is presenting her first major solo exhibition in China, titled "Neon Dreamland," at Art Focus, a new immersive art space by Tang Contemporary Art in Beijing. The show, curated by actor and digital art platform founder Yuan Hong, runs through July 6, 2025, and features paintings, sculptures, and collaborative projects including a partnership with animation label WaarWorld inspired by Liu Cixin's sci-fi novel *Supernova Era* (2003). Highlights include the debut of the "Players Series" collectible sculptures in China.
Chinese artist Zhang Shangfeng presents a solo exhibition titled “The Discourse of Neo-Mythmaking” at Beijing’s Bonian Space, curated by Yang Xi. The show features recent paintings that blend personal experience with contemporary archetypes to create what the artist calls “neo-myths.” Zhang’s work draws on his time in Xi’an, China, and an exchange program at the University of Arts in Belgrade, using stylized, modernist-influenced imagery to explore themes of self, otherness, loneliness, and interpersonal relationships.
Taikang Art Museum in Beijing is hosting 'The River Divides, The World Connects', a major retrospective of Chinese painter Liu Xiaodong from 25 November 2025 to 31 March 2026. The exhibition features over 70 works spanning the late 1970s to 2025, organized around two thematic threads—'East of the River / West of the River' and 'What to Paint / How to Paint'—tracing the artist's four-decade career and his evolving realist approach to everyday life.
The fourth edition of the Young Teachers Support Program, founded by 92-year-old oil painter Jin Shangyi in 2017, culminates in the exhibition "Asking Tao and Forging Realms" at the Art Museum of the Chinese Academy of Oil Painting in Beijing. The program provides financial support for selected young art teachers from Chinese colleges to travel to Europe for classical study in museums, followed by field trips to China's border regions, resulting in new works displayed in a group show featuring nine artists.
A group of artists, curators, and gallerists from Xinjiang, operating anonymously as the collective Yixak, have publicly criticized the Beijing exhibition "Greetings" held at the Maca Art Center from March to June 2025. The show, featuring works by Han Chinese artist Dan Er, focused on her travels through Xinjiang and its heritage arts. Yixak accuses the exhibition of cultural appropriation, misrepresentation, and reinforcing ethnic stereotypes, including conflating distinct ethnic cultures, stripping traditional Adras textile patterns of context, and mislabeling Xinjiang traditions. The collective also claims the show failed to credit local collaborators and excluded Xinjiang communities. Both Dan Er and Maca declined to comment, citing "irresistible factors."
An exhibition titled 'New Steeds of the Silk Road' has opened at Yanhuang Art Museum in Beijing, featuring horse-themed paintings and sculptures by artists from China and Belarus. The show celebrates the horse as a symbol of strength, courage, freedom, and loyalty, and coincides with the Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac. It runs until May 18.