Known for his proficiency with both Eastern and Western artistic traditions, and his ability to employ both simultaneously within his work, Zao Wou-Ki has become an important figure in mid-century art historical canon. Born Zhao Wou-Ki in 1920 in Beijing, Wou-Ki attending the National School of Arts, Hangchow, for six years before becoming a drawing instructor there. In 1947, the artist moved to Paris where he would become friends with the artists Alberto Giacometti and Joan Miró. His work, done in an abstract, gestural style quickly drew acclaim, and ultimately worked to help reestablish abstraction during a time when critics were beginning to question whether the style could appropriately express the harsh realities and emotions of the post-war world.

Chu Teh-Chun was a French-Chinese artist whose work was at the forefront of the integration of traditional Chinese painting styles with Western abstraction in the 20th century. Along with his close friends and classmates Wu Guanzhong and Zao Wou-Ki – who were nicknamed the “Three Musketeers” of Chinese modernist art – Chu was elected as member of the Académie des Beaux Arts in France. His work, along with that of Wu and Zao, indelibly influenced the artists of subsequent generations.

Born in 1920 in Hangzhou, China, Chu studied at the National School of Arts, where he met Wu and Zao. He taught Western painting styles at the National Taiwan Normal University in the early 1950s, until moving to Paris, where he lived for the remainder of his life; he would become a French citizen in 1980. No

Cao Jigang, was graduated from Material Expression Studio of Oil Painting Department of China Central Academy of Fine Arts, also was a professor at Foundation Year Program Department of China Central Academy of Fine Arts. Currently living, working in Beijing, China, and exhibiting widely in museums and curated exhibitions. Cao Jigang received the Silver Prize in The National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1999. His work is included in public collection including The National Art Museum of China in Beijing, Shanghai Art Museum and New Hall of China International Exhibition Center in Beijing.

Karin Sander was born in 1957 in Bensberg, Germany. She studied at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart and at the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum in New York. From 1999 to 2007, Sander was professor at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee. Since 2007, she holds a professorship of Art and Architecture at ETH Zurich Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

Karin Sander works with situations, their social and historical contexts, involving interventions in existing structures and institutions. The medium the work is realized in is painting, sculpture, electronic media, science, architecture; in brief: each medium is available for working out its specific potential.

Anri Sala was born in 1974 in Tirana, Albania. He received his BA in Painting and Sculpture from the National Academy of Arts Tirana, studied Video at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and completed post-graduate studies in Film Directing at Le Fresnoy–Studio National des Arts Contemporains in Tourcoing. The artist lives and works in Berlin.

Anri Sala’s oeuvre explores the relationships between music and narrative, architecture and film, interleaving qualities of different media in both complex and intuitive ways to produce works in which one medium takes on the qualities of another.

Thomas Demand was born in 1964 in Munich, Germany. He studied at the art academies in Munich and Düsseldorf. He received an MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London. Since 2011, he has been working as a professor at HFBK, the Hamburg University of Fine Arts. The artist lives and works in Berlin and Los Angeles.

Thomas Demand trained as sculptor. His photographs are generally based on found press photographs. He builds elaborate models using colored paper and cardboard which he then photographs. Often the depicted images include oblique references to historically important sites or events. No writing appears in the recreated images. The life-sized mock-ups are then destroyed.

Padeu was born in 1990 in Melong, Cameroon. Previous exhibitions include Peres Projects, Berlin, National Museum of Yaoundé, Cameroon and the National Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cameroon. His work has been acquired for the permanent collection of Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada. “I want to paint the daily life of the people around me, my family and friends. Since we all live together, I share their moments of joy, but also their sadness. However, I don’t feel obsessed with just showing this state of affairs. When I manage to capture a moment of joy, a slice of happiness that is just as perfect. In a way, painting their lives allows me to talk about my own life. I cannot work without historical and religious references in my painting since it has always been very present all around me.”

Ategwa was born in 1988 in Kumba, Cameroon. His work has recently been acquired by the Chazen Museum of Art, Wisconsin and the Perez Art Museum Miami. In recent works, Ategwa uses portrait formats and draws on subjects from a neighbourhood photo studio. He offers a local perspective on modes of self representation in Cameroon today. Both style and composition in these images recall African black and white studio photography from the post independence era. The use of framing and strong defined identities reference more contemporary influences from social media platforms. In stark contrast to the artist’s hard line execution, he introduces a new painterly water colour element which holds back the portrait’s full disclosure.

Aboudia was born in 1983 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. His work has previously been exhibited at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Saatchi Gallery among others. Aboudia draws inspiration from local street culture in his hometown Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The artist is noted for his heavily layered, brutally energetic paintings that combine an innocence and spontaneity with the portrayal of a dark interior world. Since the Ivorian civil war in 2011, his urban landscapes have been haunted by trauma; armed soldiers, ominous skulls and a populace hemmed in by danger. Recent work continues to grapple with the hardships of daily life and the social inequalities of downtown Abidjan. Often claustrophobic and oppressive, his painting achieves a careful balance between pathos and aggression.

Ye Linghan, born in Lishui, China in 1985, Graduated from China Academy of Art in 2009 and Living and working in Beijing now. The ubiquitous presence of the Internet in every aspect of our lives is a condition that became particularly apparent and irrevocable to Ye Linghan in 2016. To address the advent of what the artist claims as the future (or Year One of Artificial Intelligence), he began to translate this reality into his artistic practice under the fictional protagonist “Lucy”. Ye Linghan continues to investigate the impacts of virtual reality on human behavior, while projecting a prescient outlook of the future through his artistic practice.