EFFUSION | Consensus and Symbiosis — The 1st Chinese Contemporary Art Season 2026 • Chengdu Station

We are living in an era of highly surplus visual information. Images are produced, disseminated, and reproduced at an unprecedented speed, and artificial intelligence has made image generation even easier. While the tools of expression are multiplying, discovering a truly personal artistic language does not necessarily become any easier.

"Effusion" is not a direct externalization of emotion, but rather the manifestation of personal experience after it has been transformed through mediums, materials, and forms. Reality enters the individual, settling into bodily sensations, memories, psychology, and daily experiences, before returning to the world through art. Therefore, artworks not only present what the artist intends to express but may also expose experiences that transcend their original intentions.

This exhibition invites young artists who live and create in Chengdu. Facing similar contemporary situations, they respond to reality using different mediums and methods. There is no unified "Chengdu Style" here; instead, the shared living environment, through differentiated perceptions, generates distinctly unique artistic languages.

This also forms the specific unfolding of "Consensus and Symbiosis" (the theme of the 1st Chinese Contemporary Art Season 2026) at the Sichuan University Art Museum: Consensus is facing the era together; Symbiosis is maintaining differences within shared circumstances. In an era of visual excess, the center of gravity in art lies not in creating more images, but in allowing those experiences that have yet to be fully articulated to manifest themselves in irreplaceable forms.

Artists & Artworks

Guo Qiang

Holds a BA and MFA in Oil Painting from the Art College of Sichuan University. Currently works and lives in Chengdu. Member of the China Artists Association and the China Oil Painting Society.

Artwork: Clear Rivers and Trees. Repeated stories and overlapping emotions form the components of the cold mountains. When time and space intertwine, they lose their specific direction, appearing ancient and weathered. This manifestation is achieved through the repetition of brushstrokes, akin to wind-eroded tree rings. Time at this moment is solid, not liquid! The accumulation and even crystallization of brushstrokes construct a solid entity, a fragmented reality that is difficult to articulate clearly. I believe time is solid, because only solid things can be easily shattered, filling every corner of the nervous system with countless fragments.

Wang Haoyang

Born in Chengdu in 1997. BA (2019) and MFA (2022) from the Art College of Sichuan University.

Artwork: May My Broken Body Turn into Raging Fire. The title is derived from a video game, while the imagery originates from a first-person moment of drinking, overlaid with dynamic color layers. The juxtaposition of bright red and chiaroscuro color fields conveys intense conflict and emotional tension. The artist shapes a canvas that embodies both strong intuition and ambiguous spatial structure, serving as a metaphor for the martyrdom complex underlying the work's title.

Cao Liang

Born in Mianyang, Sichuan in 1983. Graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Sichuan University in 2007. Freelance artist.

Artwork: By using thin, overlapping washes to dissolve the sharp boundaries of objects, the artist places a bathtub in a hazy, deep forest. Domestic objects intrude into wild nature, constructing a subconscious dreamscape. Mottled, soft color layers and diffused lighting blur the boundaries between indoors and the wilderness, stripping away realistic narratives to capture sensory illusions in a half-dream state.

Zhang Jiaying

Born in Chengdu in 1991. BA (2014) and MFA (2018) from Sichuan University.

Artwork: Painting is my daily routine; I paint in a somewhat obsessive, slow manner to respond to my life encounters. In Hysteria, I pasted unique particles made by my father onto the canvas. The starting point of a painting is the intense, painful, bright, and subtle moments I have experienced. I vainly attempt to condense them on the canvas using dots and lines. By returning to "every moment" on the canvas, I can gaze at myself and gain the strength to face the richness and uncertainty of life.

Chen Xiaokai

BA (2021) and MFA (2025) in Oil Painting from Sichuan University.

Artwork: Continuously focuses on the relationship between the body, perception, light, and matter. The works often use daily, concrete images such as hands, geometry, and textures as entry points, zooming in on localized experiences to detach familiar objects from their original contexts, creating a new sense of unfamiliarity. The artist discusses how individuals perceive the world and how the body serves as a medium connecting the self to the external world.

Yan Junxiong

Born in Chengdu in 1998. MFA (2024) from Sichuan University.

Artwork: When rational thinking hits a dead end, I turn to this kind of painting. Not pursuing logic or concepts, but letting the body take the lead: dopamine, hormones, heartbeats, and breathing. This series is not about pre-set images, but the natural rhythm generated between the body and the canvas. Points, lines, planes, and colors are like independent musical movements—sometimes urgent, sometimes soothing. I don't explain the meaning; I only invite viewers to feel, letting the rhythm resonate with their own breathing. In short, I just want to show you some color (a pun for showing you what I'm made of).

Tang Ya

Born in Yancheng, Jiangsu in 1992. Graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Sichuan University in 2014.

Artwork: Takes the research of painting language as the starting point. The Array, Explicit Lines, Overprinting, and Ring Image series are the products of visual processes. The series themed Over-packaging is a reconstruction and upgrade of all previous creative systems: from singular to complex, from complex to rigorous. It aims to express that what is over-packaged is not just the language of painting.

Dai Yu

Born in Qingdao, Shandong in 2002. BA (2024) and current MFA student in Contemporary Art Creation at Sichuan University.

Artwork: ICOSAHEDRON uses natural bamboo as a skeleton to reconstruct the rationality and cosmic order embedded in Platonic polyhedra. The flexibility and structural balance of bamboo become a medium connecting natural spirituality and spatial philosophy. Twenty dimensions intertwine into a miniature symbiotic field, embracing the free flow of light and shadow. Each face and node symbolizes individuals in a complex network, awakening multidimensional tension through collision and interdependence.

Zeng Zirui

Born in Chengdu in 2001. BA and current MFA student at Sichuan University.

Artwork: The video work DIGITAL LIFE-BREATH is a postmodern art intervention in a "forgotten place"—the Li Family Courtyard in Nanbu County, Sichuan, a historical space slowly turning into ruins. The artist designed "non-human," cold sculptures: hard mirrors reflecting a distorted past, while ribbons and warm light mimic "newly awakened life." The video brings these physical sculptures to life, granting them a regular, algorithm-driven "digital breath." Images, video, and music are AI-generated, making the work itself a breathing "simulacrum."

Jiang Xinyi

Born in 2001, graduated from Sichuan University. Currently lives in Guangzhou.

Artwork: This group of works was created by individuals undergoing systematic therapy for psychological distress. Using colored sand as a medium without technical constraints, they poured and smeared sand to paint their favorite foods, rooms, or animals. The physical act of smearing sand is a healing process in itself.
[Left Piece] Expression - A free collage of creations from art therapy participants (Nov 2023).
[Right Piece] Echo - By Jiang Xinyi (Dec 2024). The artist responded to the participants' original works with five responsive pieces, exploring the two-way relationship of "expression and listening" in art therapy.

Chen Yiran (b. 1999) & Xie Yushan (b. 2000)

Graduates of the Oil Painting Department, Sichuan University. Currently based in Deyang, Sichuan.

Artwork: Think About It is an extension of a "fiber collage workshop" conducted in a hospital ward. Through the collage of fibers, fabrics, and threads, the theme of "self-portrait" gradually transformed into an abstract expression. The slow, repetitive rhythm of handcrafting allowed patients to think through touch. The artwork combines the patients' pieces with the artists' self-portraits to build a space of "seeing and being seen," inviting the audience to look inward and ask: Who am I?

Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (SCFAI) Meiyu Art Group

A team of teachers and students from SCFAI: Luo Le, Ma Ruocheng, Tang Yanxin, Liu Yongjie, Yi Xuefei.

Artwork: Rainbow Time consists of 25 documentary photos recording the group's art therapy practice at the West China Psychological Health Center (2024-2025). The photos are spliced into a rainbow sequence—a symbol of hope and inclusion. Brushes and pigments build a silent dialogue space, utilizing the gentle power of aesthetic education to complete the healing and connection of the soul.

Southwest Minzu University Team

Led by mentor Zhai Yitao, consisting of 7 students: Wu Mei, Li Danyang, Wang Qian, Xin Yue, Zhang Yujie, Wang Yitong, Zhou Zhihao.

Artwork: Foundation. A spatial practice of bodily intervention in a historical site. The artists went into the endangered Li Family Courtyard, using their physical bodies as temporary load-bearing structures to replace rotten pillars. This constructs a three-fold dialogue: a tactile dialogue between the body and the wooden structure; a tense dialogue between contemporary existence and fading history; and an ethical dialogue between humanistic care and architectural heritage.

Source: CcArtS当代艺术季