CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- The 2024 Graduation Works Exhibition of the School of Fine Arts, Southwest University opened in the school museum on June 12. The exhibition presents over 200 works by 65 master’s graduates, covering art formats like Chinese painting, oil painting, sculpture, and design.

The theme of the Graduation Exhibition is “Just in Time”, with diverse forms and languages, and quite creative use of materials. There are many works that promote and make innovations in traditional art, as well as explore and express contemporary artistic thinking.

Unique self-expression, rich and bold use of colors, diverse and changing creative trends... The graduate works with profound connotation have broadened the eyes of the audience to the exhibition.

Hongyadong, Jiefangbei, Yangtze River Cableway... These scenes with “Chongqing Flavor” combined with the work Dreamy Fairylands of Dunhuang in the New Era with Dunhuang mural elements such as nine-colored deer and auspicious clouds have attracted attention. “I came to Chongqing from Gansu studying and pursuing my dreams, and a natural feeling came to me to integrate these two places with deep influence on me.” Tian Miao, a postgraduate student in the orientation of Chinese Painting Creation at the School of Fine Arts, Southwest University, said that Chongqing is like a city in the sky in her impression, and some elements in Dunhuang murals can well increase the dreaminess of the city. Therefore, she created this work in three months, combining Chongqing’s modern urban architecture with Dunhuang murals, breaking through traditional Chinese painting’s characteristics of painting mainly by ink, and boldly using watercolor, acrylic and other materials with various techniques.

“This painting comes with BGM”. A group of oil paintings with the theme of Ultraman Tiga, Northeast Dahua tractor, and Russian architecture also made the audience feel the “Imagination and Creation” of college students. This group of oil paintings, titled I Tiga in the Northeast, contained many nonsensical elements. The creator of this work, Ma Haochen, a postgraduate student majoring in Oil Painting at Southwest University, said that the creative inspiration for several of his works came from his own life observations. As a man from 1990s, he saw Ultraman differently from eyes of those born after 2010, so he drew Ultraman in his eyes.

“When watching, most viewers will feel it hard to understand this thing, or that there is a sense of strangeness compared with the photos and images everyone is familiar with, so they will consider this painting as abstract.” Xiong Qin, Director of the Painting Department of the School of Fine Arts, Southwest University and a Master’s Tutor, said that people are in fact able to see some pretty specific and clear image prompts in the picture in a great many ones. These prompts include the juxtaposition between images, the very accidental traces of writing, the fun they superimpose together, and the strange rhythm formed in the picture, are some interesting places worth experiencing slowly.

The exhibition will last until June 25, and citizens may pay a visit inside the School with ID cards for free. (Translated by Wang Zhong, Fathom Language Limited)