At 10:00 a.m. on April 9, 2024, the first exhibition of Tomorrow's Printmaking—Excellent Printmaking Work Exhibition Tour kicked off at Kunming Museum.
The guests attending the opening ceremony included Yan Youqiong, former Executive Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of Yunnan Provincial People's Congress, Sun Jiong, Secretary of the Leading Party Members Group and Chairman of Yunnan Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Li Jianyu, Secretary of the Party Committee of Yunnan Arts University, Ouyang Junhu, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of Yunnan Arts University, Niu Zhiliang, Vice President of Yunnan Normal University, Xu Changhai, Deputy Director of the Office of Yunnan Leading & Management Group of China National Arts Fund and Huang Yanling, former Secretary of the Party Committee of Yunnan Arts University. Moreover, other leaders of Yunnan Arts University in Kunming also attended the opening ceremony.
The exhibition was a project supported by the public welfare fund from the lottery. Specifically, it was funded by the Chinese Welfare Lottery, the China Sports Lottery and the China National Arts Fund, sponsored by Yunnan Arts University and the International Printmaking Institute of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and organized by Kunming Museum, Nanjing Jinling Art Museum, Luxun Academy of Fine Arts Art Gallery, Qinghai Art Museum and Guizhou Art Museum. It was the first exhibition of the Tomorrow's Printmaking—Excellent Printmaking Work Exhibition Tour, a communication and promotion project supported by the China National Arts Fund in 2024.
President Ouyang Junhu, Chairman Sun Jiong, exhibition curator Wang Huaxiang, and Deputy Director Xu Changhai delivered speeches respectively. Guo Hao, the person in charge of the exhibition, introduced the project and former Executive Deputy Director Yan Youqiong announced the opening of the exhibition.
This exhibition tour has brought together more than 200 excellent printmaking works from over 20 countries. It has not only presented the new trend and progress of global printmaking in recent years, but also shown the latest creative practice and academic exploration achievements in terms of artistic concepts, formal languages, expression techniques and media materials. Focusing on the theme of "Tomorrow's Printmaking," it aims to explore in depth the future development of printmaking in the new era through various forms such as work exhibitions and creation seminars. The works exhibited have not only showcased the artists' superb skills and profound knowledge, but also made bold innovations and attempts in expression methods and media materials. The exhibition tour has provided a platform for Chinese and foreign artists to communicate with each other and display works and become a grand gathering where artists can engage in an exchange of ideas. Besides, it has contributed to the popularization and development of printmaking art and shown the great vitality and infinite possibilities of printmaking art in the new era. "Tomorrow's Printmaking" has continued to be open and inclusive, seize the opportunities and keep up with the pace of the times, maintain a pioneering attitude, and write a new chapter in printmaking art. As a part of the efforts, the exhibition tour has used printmaking works to display China's millennia-old cultural heritage and brilliance, carry forward the spirit of the times, and show the aesthetics of modern printmaking artistically and ideologically.
In addition, the opening ceremony was also attended by more than 20 specially-invited experts from China's printmaking community including Li Baoquan, Deputy Director of the Printmaking Art Committee of the China Artists Association and former Vice President of Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, guests from more than 10 universities in China, and more than 200 teachers and students from the Fine Arts School of Yunnan Arts University.
Concluding until April 19, 2024, the exhibition was also held at Nanjing Jinling Art Museum, Luxun Academy of Fine Art Gallery, Qinghai Art Museum and Guizhou Art Museum.
