FANTASTIC ART CHINA: International Creative Festival Exhibit Opens Today at Javits Center

The Fantastic Art China: International Creative Festival exhibit at Javits Center North (11th Avenue between 39th and 40th Streets) will feature the works of top master and emerging contemporary Chinese artists from The China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) along with other rising young artists from China and America. The one-of-a-kind cross-cultural exhibit will headline New York City Lunar New Year 2016, a five-day-long festival marking the lunar new year holiday and being held at the city's top cultural venues and landmarks today, Feb. 6, through Feb. 10. The festival programs, events and activities -- all free and open to the public -- will not only highlight Chinese arts and culture but also nature conservation for monkeys in China.

The 72,000 square foot exhibit, presented by CAFA -- China's largest and most prestigious art academy and the source of many of today's most preeminent Chinese artists -- in association with US-China Cultural Institute, Cultural Associate of the Committee of 100, will focus on the social, cultural and artistic development of contemporary China through visual art and culture. The exhibit, which will also include live performances, will be open daily from 10 am to 6 pm from Feb. 6-9 and from 10 am to 3 pm on Feb. 10.

Fantastic Art China: International Creative Festival will feature important works by celebrated Chinese contemporary artists Pan Gongkai, Su Xinping, Jiang Jie and Duan Haikang, all distinguished professors at CAFA who are cultivating the next generation of artists. The exhibit will also include a Pavilion of Contemporary Arts consisting of paintings, sculptures, installations, videos, interactive digital media, and photography, as well as The Way from Heart to Art, a re-examination of Chinese traditional ink painting and its presentation; a Sino-American Art Students Exhibition featuring the works of teachers, students and graduates from major art academies in Beijing and New York; a Pavilion of Creative Design dedicated to original Chinese design products; and a City-Themed Exhibition featuring Changsha, Hunan Province's capital, that focuses on urban development and art in a modern Chinese city.

Highlights of Fantastic Art China: International Creative Festival will include:

- Pan Gongkai's Melt is a 72-foot-long video installation focusing on the relationship between Chinese and Western art forms. Images of withered lotuses gradually being covered by snow will be projected on a screen. The lotuses are derived from one of Gongkai's large ink paintings, while the snow itself is composed with the words from his theoretical text, "On the Boundary of Western Modern Art."

- Su Xinping's Men on the Run reveals the living condition and mental state of people in today's turbulent social environment. During the process of transforming oil painting into public art, Xinping used the packaging cartons of China's most common home appliance brands. These corrugated paperboard boxes, on which he painted huge images of men on the run, not only represent the industrial productivity but also bear witness to the growth of consumerism in Chinese society.

- Jiang Jie's March Forward! March Forward! is a large-scale cone-shaped sculpture made from more than 1,000 dance shoes and featuring audio recordings. The 20-foot-tall installation by one of the most important contemporary female sculptors uses a ballet motif to portray the hidden emotions and memories of youth.

- Duan Haikang's Golden Monkey Celebration Spring is a 3,000 pound steel monkey mounting the clouds and riding the mist. This public art work will be located near the entrance of the exhibit, sending best wishes for the Year of the Monkey to all visitors - and a second one will be displayed at Lincoln Center.

- Birds, Insects, and Turtles is an interactive museum installation of the Five Dynasties painting by Huang Quan with the same name that depicts 24 lifelike birds and insects through a vivid style and refined painting technique. In this ancient scroll that has been digitized, the birds and insects are brought to life. In collaboration with Beijing's Palace Museum and the Institute of Zoology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the installation presents the natural behaviors and voices of the birds and insects, enabling users to experience a "virtual vibrancy" and grasp the value of the work via personal interaction. In addition, two exclusive apps, Auspicious Symbols in the Forbidden City (Zijincheng xiangrui) and The Night Revels of Han Xizai, will be unveiled as part of the exhibition. The Palace Museum commissioned these apps, which were designed and developed by Moujiti with support by CAFA.

- Auspicious Symbols in the Forbidden City (Zijincheng xiangrui) is a rich treasury of traditional Chinese symbolism. These symbols also had a functioning ranking order that was used in the Forbidden City of dynastic China. Through a flowing interactive adventure, the app leads the user to decode the meaning of each symbol and to explore a series of ancient art in which the symbols appear. During this process, if the iPad is flipped 90 degrees, a map appears to serve as a guide. An entertaining DIY game allows users to create their own auspicious symbols and share them on their social networks.

- The Night Revels of Han Xizai, an iPad and Android app, launches users into the world of the Five Dynasties Period and presents the story through the eyes of alleged painter Gu Hongzhong. High-definition images display the painting in marvelous detail while splendid interactive features present an exciting encounter with ancient art. The painting comes alive with exquisite music and dance. Moreover, Palace Museum researchers guide users in uncovering the actual historical events surrounding the painting through expert commentary. Insightful explanations reveal the meaning behind the painting's history, main characters, furnishings, collectors' seals, and inscriptions.

Birds, Insects, and Turtles, along with Auspicious Symbols in the Forbidden City and The Night Revels of Han Xigai are part of the interactive media section of the Sino-American Art Students exhibition, which will feature 60 works by young U.S. and Chinese artists from leading art schools including CAFA, Beijing Film Academy, Expanded Media SOAD -- NYSCC at Alfred University, Columbia University, Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design, and New York University - Interactive Telecommunication Program, School of Visual Arts, among others. The exhibition, which investigates how these young artists deal with cultural convergence and integration as well as cultural conflicts and tensions, will also include a special public forum focusing on education in media art on Feb. 7 at 10:30 am at Javits North.

"We are delighted to partner with so many important New York cultural institutions to celebrate the 2016 Lunar New Year and the Year of the Monkey. We hope that the Lunar New Year is not only a Chinese holiday, but also an American holiday and a global one. We hope the events of this five-day festival will provide a view of the future direction of modern Chinese arts, culture, and conservation," said Yu Ding, Director of China's Central Academy of Fine Arts and Chief Curator of Fantastic Art China.

"The exhibit will provide a look into the hearts and minds of Chinese artists today," said Shirley Young, Chair of US-China Cultural Institute.

Additional events in support of New York City Lunar New Year 2016 include a special NYC Lunar New Year Students Day at Javits Center North on Feb. 8 to celebrate the city's historic designation of the Lunar New Year as a school holiday in 2016 for 1.1 million public school students, a Fireworks Spectacular over the Hudson River (Feb. 6), an Empire State Building light show (Feb. 6 and 8), lion and monkey dances at Lincoln Center Josie Robertson Plaza (Feb. 9), an art display at David Geffen Hall (Feb. 9).

For more information, visit www.nyclunarnewyear.org. For additional social media, follow www.facebook.com/nyclunarnewyear, twitter.com/nyclunarnewyear, Instagram.com/nyclunarnewyear.

The Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), considered by many "China's most prestigious and renowned art academy", is an academy where culture, history and art are flourishing. CAFA enjoys the best art resources of the world, and as a leading institution for modern art education in China, provides a rich land for those who wish to learn experience and engage in creativities, which has nurtured quite a lot of pre-eminent artists in the past ninety years. Remaining a reasonable scale in terms of space and student number, CAFA highlighting its academic, experimental, practicing and multi-disciplinary developments. Alumni of CAFA includes famous art historians, critics and curators such as Wu Hong, Hou Hanru, Fei Dawei, and internationally known artists like Xu Bing and Fang Lijun. Like CAFA, Institute of Arts Administration and Education, as CAFA's eighth secondary school, highly values all-round elementary teaching on multiple subjects and "broad basis" education and ensures an internationalized curriculum setting and teaching methods, fostering talents for arts administration and education that embrace a global vision and acclimatize the future development of the nation's arts and culture.