Introduction
Star Gallery is proud to announce the opening of the first group exhibition since its return to the 798 Art Zone — I Love Beijing New Wave — on 7 September 2019, featuring the works of Chen Ke, Teppei Kaneuji, Liu Xiaohui, Song Kun, Wen Ling, Wang Yifan, Zhao Bandi, Zhou Yilun, as well as Pang Kuan and Peng Lei from the New Pants.
Beside the Nouvelle Vague of the French art cinema and the rock music of the post-punk period in the 20th century, the term “New Wave” has been, so to speak, entitled to many more connotations in different fields. It is a cultural notion that cannot be defined in a singular way; a slogan, as it were, that is related to people’s pursuit of freedom and more personalized expression.
The art world of China underwent the ‘85 New Wave at the beginning of the country’s reform and opening up in the 1980s. This first surge of the “New Wave” in China was marked by the China/Avant-Garde Exhibition at the National Art Museum. The climax of the movement, however, also put an end to it as two gunshots were fired in the showroom. In November 2017, the 21-year-old News Pants thrilled its fans with a retrospective — China New Wave. In 2019, thanks to the hit online show Big Band, the band’s vocal Peng Lei has drawn a sudden popularity with his straightforwardness and simple but clear attitude, and was thereby lionized by the mainstream media. Is the “New Wave” still a rippling undercurrent? It is a topic that I Love Beijing New Wave would like to re-discuss, together with a series of screenings, conversations and parties during the exhibition, hoping to give a certain possibility to the art of China in the name of the “New Wave”.
