Feng (Eric) Fan
Assistant Professor, Institute of Contemporary Art and Department of Painting, Tsinghua University

An exhibition becomes experimental when the focus of experimentation shifts from the content of the exhibition to the exhibition itself: the site, form and function. Because of the intense conflict between the backward exhibition system and the rapidly developing experimental art in 1990s China, the artists planned many exhibitions exploring the new public and private spaces for exhibiting contemporary art. Those spaces became the experimental site for the curators and artists, which, as a consequence, stimulated the artists to experiment with new concepts and forms in their art.

Feng Fan, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Painting, Academy of Arts & Design, and Institute of Contemporary Art, Tsinghua University. He was trained as a visual artist and art historian and has exhibited work across China, the U.S. and Japan. Dr. Feng is currently a visiting fellow at the Archive of American Art at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. as one of four “2017 East Asia” Fellows selected by ARIAH (Association of Research Institutes of Art History).