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2019 Porsche “Young Chinese Artist of the Year” officially kicked off Porsche China continues its dedication to social responsibility commitments and helping to develop young artists

· The 2019 Porsche “Young Chinese Artist of the Year”, jointly organized by Porsche China and the Cc Foundation and supported by ART021, was officially launched at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre.
· The 2019 Porsche “Young Chinese Artist of the Year” is upgraded in mechanism, and will continuously explore and support young artists.
· Three award-winning artists of the first Porsche “Young Chinese Artist of the Year” unveiled their new works at the 2018 ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, demonstrating Porsche’s firm commitment to helping the cultivation of young Chinese artists.

Shanghai. On November 8th, 2018, the 2019 Porsche “Young Chinese Artist of the Year” was officially launched at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre. The event was co-organized by Porsche China and the Cc Foundation, and supported by ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair. This event marks the continuation and upgrade of the first Porsche “Young Chinese Artist of the Year” in 2017, demonstrating the commitment in making this event a sustainable, authoritative and innovative biennial art selection in China. This programme aims to find and support the most innovative and pioneering new young artists in China, and encourage them to advance in the exploration and practice of their art, by studying topics that mainly relate to contemporary art and young artists. Additionally, the latest works of three award-winning artists from the first Porsche “Young Chinese Artist of the Year” will also be exhibited at the 2018 ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair held from 8th – 11th November.

The Porsche “Young Chinese Artist of the Year” has gathered a group of high-ranking art institutions and academies in China, along with well-known artists, curators as well as media to jointly create a professional art selection. The nomination committee members of this year's selection include Professor Qiu Zhijie, Dean of the School of Experimental Art of the Central Academy of Fine Arts; Ms. Yu Miao, art historian and critic; Mr. Xu Zhen, artist and owner of the Madein Gallery; artist Liu Jianhua; and Dr. Yeewan Koon, the chair and associate professor of the Fine Arts Department, University of Hong Kong. All have made outstanding achievements in their respective fields of expertise and have profound insights into contemporary art.

“Porsche China is proud to work with a number of outstanding individuals and institutions in the field of art to contribute to the development of young Chinese art talents,” said Dr. -Ing Jens Puttfarcken, President and CEO of Porsche China. “Corporate social responsibility is one of the key areas of the Porsche Strategy 2025. Over the years, we have been actively practicing corporate social responsibility and are committed to promoting social harmony and healthy development, with the cultivation and support of young artistic talents being one of the core practices. We hope that this selection event will become a long-term platform for outstanding young artists in China to communicate and demonstrate their talents.”

Upgrade of Selection Mechanism to Enhance Young Artists Exploration

Following the success of the first selection, the mechanism for Porsche 2019 “Young Chinese Artist of the Year” was upgraded including the four stages of nomination, exhibiting works of the nominees and voting, winners’ announcements, and review, all of which help to highlight the purity and professional rigor of art.

In the nomination process, the five nomination committee members will nominate no more than five young artists respectively. One representative from each of the five fine arts institutions of Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Hubei Institute of Fine Arts, Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, China Academy of Art and Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts will be invited to nominate a young artist from the college to participate in the selection process, providing a great opportunity to current students with promising potential. Following that, a group exhibition will be held for all candidates, during which, the jury, comprising the nomination committee, representatives of the five art institutes and media panels, will select young Chinese artists as winners based on a variety of criteria, such as idea, and on-site presentations. The winners will be announced during the ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair. After one year of preparation, conception and creation, the new art works of the winners will be presented on a special exhibition at next year’s ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair.

In the 2017 Porsche “Young Chinese Artist of the Year”, a group of young breakthrough artists stood out. These young artists demonstrated constructive independent thinking and strong innovation and analysis in regard to the rapidly changing social form and in an increasingly converged trend of art. Among them, Wu Junyong, Yao Qingmei and Zhang Ding were named as the winners of the first selection. In the past year, with the support and funding of Porsche China and the selection, the three artists have continued to develop new ideas and perspectives to create new artistic creations. At the 2018 ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, Wu Junyong exhibited “East Mountain, South Ocean, West Garden, North Country”, a reflection of society with personal images of time and space via a combination of personal imagination and historical memories. Yao Qingmei exhibited “The Tetrachromatic Dream of the Dichromats” constructs a landscape installation full of ambiguity and metaphor, subtly pointing out doubts about contemporary predicaments. Finally, Zhang Ding's “The Kind of Need – Exoticism – 2” revolves around the senses and will and stimulates thoughts through hidden information and intuition.

Promoting artistic exploration and social development

The support for young artistic talents is an important practice of Porsche “Empowering the Future” Corporate Social Responsibility programme. In 2010, Porsche China cooperated with the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts to hold the Porsche “Empowering the Future” Art Contest and in the following seven years, Porsche China has provided practical help for the artistic exploration of many students from Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, and has organized outstanding works which have been exhibited at famous exhibitions including ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair and Shanghai Contemporary Art Exhibition, which have received widespread attention.

In order to improve this cultivation and support of Chinese young artists to a new level, Porsche launched its first “Young Chinese Artist of the Year” in May 2017. And via ART021, an art exhibition platform of top global institutions, young artists have more opportunities to show their talents. ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair co-founder Ms. Kylie Ying said “ART021 is always dedicated to sharing the latest trends and ideas in contemporary art. Porsche ‘Young Chinese Artist of the Year’ gives a voice to the new power of Chinese art and allows more artists to blossom here.”

11/8/2018

Further information and pictures for journalists and media representatives can be found on the Porsche press database at http://presse.porsche.de/.