In Culture Games, Olu Oguibe decried a kind of superior tokenism that often underlies many institutions’ once-in-a-decade non-Western art exhibitions. While several of the artists presented here are from China, this folio certainly isn’t that. Rather, collected here are works of interest that have come to my attention through various channels. As I am centered in Beijing, quite a few of the works presented here, not surprisingly, are from artists based or exhibited in China. And as Drunken Boat has been expanding its international editorial base, these new points of intersection will afford us more opportunities to present international works for your consideration.

As for the work in this folio, the connections between these works form intersecting Venn diagrams in terms of themes, materials, traditions and posture. Urbanity, history & tradition (canon), the everyday, the use of text in a visual context: These are just a few of the recurring elements we can see when placing these pieces in conversation with each other.

David Harrison Horton
Art Statement Editor
August, 2014