Painting The Town Red

China’s capital is home to an unlikely art renaissance.

- Andrew Wincheta

If you find a boring or unoccupied moment in Beijing, try the following experiment: Open your well-worn travel guide to any page, and count the number of times you spot the words “ancient”, “traditional”, or “the Middle Kingdom”.

It’s hard to separate the real Beijing from the stereotypes, so deeply have they become ingrained. So it’s all the more unexpected when relic weary visitors learn that Beijing is also a leading centre of modern and contemporary art. Forget about all those kung-fu clichés; the new Chinese artists are in many ways far ahead of their counterparts abroad. Even before Yue Minjun and Ai Weiwei came into the world spotlight, China had a growing network of underground galleries and artists, sometimes operating without official approval. The subculture that emerged was as subversive as it was eccentric.

The following decades elevated modern art from a cultish fringe to a respected form of expression. While the list that follows is far from complete, it offers a brief introduction to some of the most representative spaces in this surprisingly modern spread.

The 798 Arts Zone

The undisputed capital of the modern arts scene is the 798 Art Zone, a half-million square metre complex of red brick at the rim of the Fourth Ring Road, named for its first incarnation as a military factory. Beginning in the 1980s, artists annexed the deserted workshops and squeezed their studios and spaces between the derelict machinery and dripping pipes. Dozens of high-end venues have now set their roots there, as well as many offshoots and branching from institutions abroad.