Catalogue of joint exhibition held at Shuimu Contemporary Art Space, Beijing in 2008. ‘Apartment Art’ is a term Gao Minglu put forward to summarize a very important phenomenon in Chinese contemporary art during the former three or four decades. Under the historical context of Chinese contemporary art, ‘Apartment Art’ is one of the ways in which underground art, experimental art and avant-garde art have committed themselves in the creation of critical and radical contemporary art works. Therefore, ‘Apartment’ cannot be defined as an ordinary alternative space of exhibitions, but a way of the surviving of underground and avant-garde art. In terms of activities, ‘Apartment Art’ reflects the originality and characteristics of Chinese avant-garde art, because it has been developed for about two decades without sponsors and financial aids from any institution, neither offical, nor gallery space. It is a completely independent, spontaneous form of art acitvities.

The present exhibition examines Chinese contemporary art from the late 1970s to 1995, focusing on artists who belong to the 'Apartment Art' generation. Images of works are accompanied by artist biographies.