start visiting startdrawing: chinese art

As my Institute for the Future colleague David Pescovitz likes to say, if you’re trying to understand the direction of change, watch what artists are doing. That’s why a site recently pointed out by another IFTF colleague, Mike Love, is helpful and intriguing. Startdrawing.org is curated by Singaporean artists Josef Lee, a designer / illustrator and JunMing, a cartoonist. They describe their site as:

a web resource portal for Asia’s artists and drawings.This site was started with the aim of showcasing and sharing drawings from talented artists in Asia, and in the process, promote the joys of drawing. Our motto: Drawings from Asia. Drawings by Asians.

You can search by categories, including news, illustrations, concept art, fine arts, comics, architecture, products/toys, and motion.  Or search regionally: click on the China link and luxuriate in images by Chinese artists, some of them well known outside of China.  For instance, images from oil painter Zhang Linhai’s latest exhibition, described as

almost surrealist oil paintings explicitly articulating feelings
such as sadness, fear, a need for escape, bemusement, and even more
disconcerting, the vapid glare of shock or even possession.