Group Exhibition: IN FOCUS: XAFA

Exhibition of Faculty, Alumni, and Students  from the Department of Oil Painting, Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts

Academic Director: He Jun

Organizers: Yang Yang, Chen Yanting

ART LABOR Gallery is pleased to present IN FOCUS: XAFA, a group exhibition opening in January 2026, featuring works by faculty members, alumni, and current students from the Department of Oil Painting at the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts. Conceived as a cross-generational dialogue, the exhibition brings together artists at different stages of their artistic trajectories within a shared institutional lineage.

As the sole higher-level fine arts academy in the Northwest region of China, the Oil Painting Department of Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts has long generated new artistic energy through its engagement with realist traditions, conceptual shifts, and the exploration of individualized visual languages. Centered on the concept of “coordinates,” the exhibition seeks to present, within a shared space, the positions, directions, and tensions occupied by different artists along their respective artistic trajectories.

“XAFA,” the abbreviation of Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, functions here as both an institutional reference and an open point of origin. Rather than proposing a unified stylistic narrative, the exhibition constructs a dynamic network through the juxtaposition of multiple artistic practices. Time unfolds non-linearly: works by teachers, graduates, and current students resonate with one another, revealing both lines of continuity and parallel, divergent paths within contemporary painting.

Each participating artist represents a distinct coordinate emerging from the same educational ground, continuously redefining their position within the broader landscape of contemporary art. IN FOCUS: XAFA is thus not merely a presentation of works, but an ongoing dialogue about artistic formation, movement, and repositioning across time.