A Ride to Combine

Hive will present our Special Exhibition, titled with A Ride to Combine, when applied to the ecosystem of art, refers to the close interaction between galleries – the primary market and artists, and to the way how the two parts become one essential impetus of art market and directions. This special exhibition is to examine and show the working paths and fruits of Hive Center for Contemporary Art since 2012 when Hive transformed from a non-profit institution into a commercial gallery.

Taking the aesthetics of Eastern art as its academic direction, and approaching from perspectives such as the examination of art history, the conditions of the field where contemporary art happens and the aesthetic interest in artists’ art-making, Hive has launched large-scale group exhibitions, including “Lightness”, “Bidirectional Punctum”, “Illusion Image”, “Variation”, “The Immortal Scenery”, “Editing the Spectacle”, “The Boundaries of Order”, “Too Loud a Solitude”, “Post-80s Artists Invitation Exhibition” , trying to pre-judge the tendency of contemporary art waves, to integrate the creational directions of artists groups and to propel Chinese contemporary art. 

At the same time, Hive pays attention to important artist cases in contemporary art practice, especially to those who were neglected by art history and art market for some particular historical reasons, reveals the root of their inner thinking and their artistic attainments by retrospective, and puts them back to the positions they deserve in art history. The practices of these artists started basically from “’85 New Wave” and are still alive in the present, most of which embody non-socialist realism in art. The retrospectives not only systematically and academically sort out their artistic creations, but also make us realize the art legacies excluded from the mainstream art history are more diversified and abundant.