Sketching out a career

Fresh graduates from the Central Academy of Fine Arts present the best of their work at a recent graduation exhibition. Their pieces vary in media and genres, from installations, oil paintings and Chinese ink art to picture books.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Potential to grow

Galleries also hunt for artists with potential to progress.

Zhang Qiao from the Asia Art Center in Beijing's 798 art district says they don't work with an artist because he or she is young or old, but they do a check of an artist's output to see whether he or she is an independent thinker.

Xia Jifeng, the director of Hive Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, frequents graduation shows. His institution has a project that stages the first exhibition of an artist still at school or someone who has just graduated.

He says they rule out those who create market-oriented works.

"We see if the graduate is developing a systematic series of works. If not, it is not the time to exhibit him or her. We wait and we are cautious."

So, teachers and gallerists urge graduates to first focus on creativity rather than on market recognition.

Cai Wanlin, the director of Beijing's Rhythm Art Organization, says many artists' fame is transient because their initial success is built on sales and they lack a solid base of collectors and academic recognition.

Ding Ning, a lithograph professor from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, says: "It is good for an artist if he or she spends three to five years developing individual styles, before he or she comes to the market."