China’s art scene is a vibrant tapestry of tradition, innovation, and global dialogue, with its top galleries and museums serving as dynamic hubs for contemporary expression and cultural preservation. From Beijing’s iconic National Art Museum to Shanghai’s experimental UCCA Center, these institutions currently host groundbreaking exhibitions that bridge historical craftsmanship with cutting-edge digital art, ecological storytelling, and philosophical inquiry. This introduction highlights five premier venues—each showcasing active, present-day exhibitions that reflect China’s evolving artistic landscape.
National Art Museum of China (Beijing)
The National Art Museum of China hosts Xu Dongdong: Civilized Dialogue, Questions and Answers About Life (October 25–November 6, 2025), featuring Xu’s large-scale oil paintings exploring humanistic themes through abstract forms and vibrant colors. Parallel to this, the 2025 Chinese Farmers’ Paintings Exhibition (October 28–ongoing) showcases rural life through folk art, blending traditional techniques with contemporary narratives. Xu Dongdong, a leading figure in Chinese contemporary art, integrates Eastern philosophy with global modernist influences, while the farmers’ exhibition highlights grassroots creativity.
Official Website
Professor Xu Dongdong’s artistic life is a unique trajectory that follows an unusual path and constantly seeks innovation and change. His paintings has always been rooted in the fertile soil of Chinese philosophy and aesthetics, and at the same time draws on the essence of human art from an open and inclusive perspective.
UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing)
UCCA presents Tanaka Gongqi: Temporary Community (September 27, 2025–January 4, 2026), a video-installation exploring displacement and cultural fragmentation through personal stories of Japanese-Americans. Concurrent exhibitions include Yasmine Anlan Huang: Becoming Everyone, Everywhere (September 26–December 6, 2025), featuring immersive digital works that merge AI-generated landscapes with human emotion. Tanaka, a Tokyo-based artist, uses minimalist aesthetics to critique societal fractures, while Huang’s work embodies post-humanist philosophy.
UCCA Beijing
The exhibition focuses on how artists explore the complex relationship between people in temporary gatherings and open collaboration: these encounters triggered by chance, crisis or experiment are often short-lived, but they reveal emotional flow and tension in uncertainty and contradiction. The exhibition does not provide a clear answer, but by creating a situation, the audience can experience the possibility of this relationship in the “temporary” coexistence with others. “Tanaka Gongqi: Temporary Community” is planned by UCCA curator Zhang Nanzhao.
Shanghai Museum (Shanghai)
The 15th Shanghai Biennale, “花儿听到蜜蜂了吗？” (November 8, 2025–ongoing), curated by Kitty Scott, features 250+ works by global artists examining ecological interconnectedness. Key installations include Miguel Fernando de Castro’s “Becoming Tree-Like Cactus” (2019–2025), a photo series questioning anthropocentrism, and Haegue Yang’s kinetic sculptures blending industrial materials with natural motifs. The museum also hosts DEEP SPACE 2.0: From Pyramids to Notre-Dame (until December 31, 2025), an 8K immersive experience merging AI-restored historical sites with speculative futures.
Shanghai Museum
After a prudent resolution by the Academic Committee of the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Kitty Scott was appointed as the main curator of the 15th Shanghai Biennale. The theme of this biennale is “花儿听到蜜蜂了吗？” ”（Does the Flower Hear the Bee? ), will be held from November 8, 2025 to March 31, 2026 at the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art. The Shanghai Biennale is the earliest international contemporary art biennale founded in China, and it is also one of the most influential contemporary art events in Asia and the world. Ms. Scott will work with her invited team, and the specific membership list will be announced later.
Red Brick Art Museum (Beijing)
Anselm Kiefer: Arsenal (September 15, 2025–February 22, 2026) displays the German artist’s monumental mixed-media works, incorporating lead, ash, and found objects to explore war, memory, and transformation. Parallel to this, Four Seasons (October 20–November 20, 2025) features group exhibitions by emerging Chinese artists like Bao Pei and Zhou Li, whose works interrogate urbanization through abstract landscapes. Kiefer’s practice, rooted in German Expressionism, contrasts with the younger artists’ digital-native aesthetics.
Red Brick Art Museum
Long Museum (West Bund, Shanghai)
2025 is the year of the snake in the Lunar calendar. Snakes have an important place and rich connotations in cultures all over the world. People appreciate the beautiful and unique life posture of snakes, fear the dangers of snakes, and worship the power of snakes to shed their skins as if they are reborn. As one of the earliest totems of the Chinese nation, the image of a snake appeared 8,000 years ago. The legends and rich meanings related to snakes flow in every era.
“Yi Si Xingyun” exhibited a number of modern and contemporary private art collections in the middle of the year. In the sixth exhibition hall, more than 30 abstract works of art are visually related to the image of snakes and other biological forms. Creators use lines to convey meaning and shapes to paint gods. Some capture the texture of natural materials, some speculate on biological forms and structures, and some use a combination of multiple media to emphasize the expression of power and dynamics. In the third exhibition hall, more than 30 paintings are timely landscapes with natural mountains and forests as the theme. (Official website)
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