"Sparse and Dense Timespace: An Art Dialogue Among Ma Shuqing, Feng Yan and Wang Guangle" has opened at Gallery 3B, CAFA Art Museum. As the inaugural exhibition of CAFA Art Museum’s CAFAM Contemporary Art Power Series, the show features Ma Shuqing, Feng Yan and Wang Guangle — three artists who have dedicated themselves to their creative practices for decades. Combining individual sections with "pairwise dialogue" zones, the exhibition presents their distinct explorations and inquiries within the realm of abstract art.
Yu Yang, Member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Vice President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, delivered an address
Yu Yang, Member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Vice President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, remarked that the exhibition is titled "Sparse and Dense Timespace". Though the three artists boast distinctive styles, they have persevered along their respective creative paths. Ma Shuqing has devoted more than thirty years to abstract painting, probing the relationship between colour and space. Feng Yan moves fluidly between photography and painting, rediscovering the appearance of ordinary objects through sustained observation. For Wang Guangle, time has always served as the quintessential material of his creation. What unites their artistic practices is their continuous reflection on and advancement of the intrinsic language of art. They neither chase prevailing aesthetics nor engage directly with social issues. Such an artistic trajectory remains relatively marginal within the context of Chinese contemporary art, yet it is all the more precious for that reason, standing up to prolonged contemplation.
By staging this exhibition, CAFA Art Museum intends to convey a stance: in an era fixated on "change", we ought to cherish the quality forged through long-term accumulation and the capacity for persistent inquiry. This bears on the fundamentals of art education, as well as the inner sense of direction and motivation for creators. As the first project of the contemporary art research exhibition series, we hope to build a platform for dedicated practitioners to engage in dialogue and bring their perseverance to wider audiences.
Jin Jun, Director of CAFA Art Museum and Curator of the Exhibition, Delivered an Address
Jin Jun, Director of CAFA Art Museum and Curator of the exhibition, stated that against the backdrop of Chinese modernization and new quality productive forces, the value of abstract art has become increasingly prominent. Closely connected to daily work and life, abstract art draws people’s attention to aesthetics, pure form, as well as texture, quality and detail. Modern and contemporary art constitutes a core exhibition category for CAFA Art Museum. As the inaugural exhibition of the CAFAM Contemporary Art Power Series, this exhibition has been unveiled to audiences after more than one year of planning. The show brings together three artists: Ma Shuqing, Feng Yan and Wang Guangle. Born in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s respectively, they are at the prime of their creative careers. As key representatives of Chinese contemporary abstract art, each has developed a distinctive approach in their explorations of space, time, colour and light. Furthermore, the exhibition features an inventive spatial layout. Separate galleries function as mini solo exhibitions to showcase each artist’s individual creative outlook, while dedicated "Dialogue Zones" juxtapose works by two artists to examine their convergences and divergences. This arrangement helps audiences comprehend the artists’ modes of thinking, builds a contextual framework for sustained contemplation of artworks, and delivers diversified viewing experiences. It is expected that as a public cultural and artistic platform, the museum will continue to bring ideas together, stimulate discussions, and foster and showcase the vitality of contemporary art.
Participating Artist Ma Shuqing Delivered an Address
Participating artist Ma Shuqing expressed his gratitude to the Central Academy of Fine Arts for giving him the opportunity to take part in this dialogue exhibition alongside the other two distinguished artists. In his opinion, painting is no longer a prevalent topic nowadays. He is particularly appreciative that CAFA Art Museum persists in staging an exhibition of paintings at a time when AI attracts tremendous attention. He believes that the core of painting lies in the process rather than the final result — something that cannot be replaced by any algorithm. Meanwhile, painting carries intense privacy. Artworks are created alone in the studio, yet they take on a completely different form once they enter public exhibition spaces. For this reason, he refrains from over-interpreting his works verbally, hoping to leave viewers full freedom of observation and interpretation.
Participating Artist Feng Yan Delivered an Address
Participating artist Feng Yan expressed his sincere gratitude to CAFA Art Museum for organizing this exhibition. What resonates with him most is the "dialogue" framework created by the show. Each artist is provided with an independent space, while their works encounter those of the other two artists within the Dialogue Zones. Artworks enter each other’s visual field as well as the viewers’. New meanings emerge through ongoing comparison, response and transformation. Although Feng Yan seems to traverse different media, moving between photography and painting, one inquiry has remained unchanged over the years: How does an image come into being? How does it unfold gradually amid time, space, materiality and observation, rather than being manufactured. He fully endorses the exhibition’s core keyword — "continuity". It is the considerable disparities between the three artists in their concerns and artistic output that enable authentic dialogue. Art does not aim to reach unanimity. Instead, across disparate approaches and experiences, it allows us to understand one another anew and gain renewed insight into art itself.
Gao Gao, Deputy Director of CAFA Art Museum, presided over the event
Group Photo of Guests
The three artists were born respectively in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. While the works exhibited bear abstract characteristics, abstraction was not a predetermined creative direction for them. Instead, it evolved organically into their unique artistic language through long-term practice. Since pursuing his studies in Germany in the late 1980s, Ma Shuqing has consistently devoted himself to expressing intangible time and space through colour. This exhibition showcases works from multiple series including Layers, Concave & Convex and Provence, embodying his pure, decades-long exploration of the essence of art. Feng Yan moves fluidly between photography and painting. From Tang Mausoleum Long Grass to The Other Side of a Painting, and extending to abstract paintings presented publicly for the first time, he has constructed a complete cross-media creative cycle. Works spanning Wang Guangle’s early Coffin Paint series to his Untitled series resonate with one another across the gallery, demonstrating his sustained creative practice centred upon time as the core concept. Their creative trajectories reflect the decades-long exploration and continuously deepening spiritual connotations of Chinese abstract art.
The exhibition unfolds across six sections. It features dedicated individual spaces for each of the three artists, alongside three specially designed "pairwise dialogue" zones: “Common Forms, Divergent Paths”, “Harmony and Soliloquy”, and “Impression and Stratification”. When works by two artists are juxtaposed, beneath their seemingly similar formal appearances lie entirely different artistic inquiries. Their ostensibly divergent creative paths are subtly interconnected at a deeper level. Rather than delivering definitive conclusions to visitors, this curatorial framework extends an invitation: every viewer can initiate their own dialogue, discover personal connections between the artworks, and forge an individual viewing trajectory.
The CAFAM Contemporary Art Power Series is a brand-new exhibition programme launched by CAFA Art Museum. It aims to spotlight artists who have sustained long-term dedication within their respective fields, with profound academic grounding and enduring artistic accumulation. A clear curatorial vision was established from the very beginning of the series: rather than pursuing the scale effect of large group exhibitions, nor settling for the single perspective of solo shows, it explores a third approach — bringing together artists with divergent creative paths yet intrinsic affinities to form an integrated dialogue within a shared space. “Sparse and Dense Timespace”marks the first realisation of this curatorial concept.
The exhibition is on view at Gallery 3B, CAFA Art Museum and will run until 6 September.
Ma Shuqing, Recalling Provence 05-2026, 250 × 250 cm, Acrylic on linen, 2026
Ma Shuqing, Workday 1,110 × 140 cm, Mineral pigments with acrylic medium, 2026
Feng Yan, Untitled 8735,180 × 150 cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2017
Feng Yan, Untitled 8625, 180 × 150 cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2015
Wang Guangle, 120705, 180 × 160 cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2012
Wang Guangle,160114, 280 × 180 cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2016
CAFAM Contemporary Art Power Series
Sparse and Dense Timespace: An Art Dialogue Among Ma Shuqing, Feng Yan and Wang Guangle
Exhibition Dates: 26 July – 6 September 2026 Venue: Gallery 3B, CAFA Art Museum
Organiser: CAFA Art Museum
Exhibition Curatorial Team
Academic Host: Yu Yang
Curators: Jin Jun, Gao Gao
Exhibition Director: Han Wenchao
Exhibition Coordinators: Hai Jun, Li Yaochen
Assistant Curators: Hu Xiaolan, Wang Jing
Visual Design: Dong Yuexi
Space Design: Shen Xingyi
Video Production: Lu Yingying, Zhi Yuehui, Sui Wuchangjun, Ding Yi, Chang Yuqing
Exhibition Management: Jing Peng, Su Shicun, Lü Zhifa, Chen Xiaohua, Guo Xu
Media Promotion: He Yisha, Wu Jing, He Yifei, Du Yinzhu, Ding Yi, Guo Hongmei, Min Zhiyi
Public Education: Xiao Baozhen, Geng Jinghua, Wang Jun, Yao Yiqun, Liang Wen, Cai Meng
Development & Outreach: Sun Wei, Yi Yi, Jin Jianru, Kou Lei
Finance: Yang Liu, Men Jing
Administrative Support: Yue Junyao, Liu Xingling, Zhang Qian, Jiang Siyu
Exhibition Assistants: Zhang Shurong, Wang Shumo, Tang Ruoxi, Jiang Bingchen, Fan Qiyan, Wang Yuqing, Zeng Zhitong, Peng Yuxin, Dong Kun, Liu Ziyue, Wu Yixi, Zhang Yuanxi, Li Songjialin, Meng Shujun, Liu Motong, Liu Mingqi, Wu Yiyang
Acknowledgements (Listed in alphabetical order of Pinyin):
Beijing Commune, Hi Art, Ku Art (Beijing), Blue Shore Gallery (Shenzhen), Asia Art Center (Beijing)
Cai Xiaolin, Chen Xiaohong, Huang Dai, Jiang Ting, Li Zeyu, Leng Lin, Li Na, Luo Xiaohu, Peng Peng, Wang Xiaofei, Shi Jiajia, Zhang Li, Zhang Mengmeng, Zhang Zihan, Zhou Rongke
Editor-in-Chief / He Yisha
Editor / Du Yinzhu
