Tradition remains a pivotal force in shaping the evolution of contemporary Chinese art. The late 1970s and 1980s marked both the waning of the political fervour of the Cultural Revolution and a widespread cultural revival. In their search for new contemporary art languages, artists looked not only to Western influences but also back to their own traditions. In the meantime, traditional Chinese symbols have frequently been appropriated within art markets and diplomatic discourses, raising concerns that ‘tradition’ may be reduced to a cliché strategy exploited for commercial and political gain. Contemporary art practice is actively revisiting and reinterpreting traditional Chinese concepts, imagery, and symbols. However, academically speaking, this endeavour lacks, despite fragmented interventions, a connection to existing historical and theoretical narratives of Chinese contemporary art which placed excessive emphasis on the tensions among the socialist legacy, the influence of Western art, and the growing market economy.

To bridge this gap, this edition of the Sigg Fellowship explores the relationship between the traditional and the contemporary in Chinese art practices since the 1980s, repositions the role of Chinese tradition within global art production and the art system, and re-examines artist agency.

Potential research directions include, but are not limited to:

• The role of ink art and related aesthetics and practices within contemporary art;
• The re-examination and re-contextualisation of relevant art-historical theories, terminologies, and discourses;
• The interweaving and boundaries between art and craft (e.g. materiality and craftsmanship in contemporary art making);
• The ways in which Chinese art practice responds to the dynamic interplay between tradition and the contemporary, grounded in the analysis of under-studied case studies and trends.

Members of the Jury

• Peggy Wang (Associate Professor of Art History and Asian Studies, Bowdoin College)
• Ying Kwok (Senior Curator, Head of Visual Art, M+)
• Wu Mo (Sigg Curator, M+)

The fellow will be awarded a grant of HKD 200,000 to cover all expenses, including travel, living, insurance, and research-related costs. The awarded fellow is expected to be attached to M+ for a period of three to six months. They will develop their proposed project in response to the research theme and will be able to access the M+ Collections both onsite and online, consult library and archival materials, deliver several internal presentations, and take part in discussions with curators and other staff members. This provides an opportunity for the project to relate to the museum’s current and future programmes as well as its curatorial and collecting strategies. The fellowship will conclude with a public lecture in Hong Kong and an essay in Chinese (at least 7,500 characters) or in English (at least 5,000 words) to be published on M+ Magazine.

We welcome applications from individuals or research groups of all nationalities, with no age requirement. The provision of the fellowship, however, depends on whether the fellow can obtain a visa for Hong Kong. Applicants should either hold a postgraduate degree in a relevant discipline or an undergraduate degree with a minimum of three years of relevant professional work or academic research experience. Proficiency in spoken and written Chinese or English is also required.

The fellowship proposal must be related to visual arts and must be based on new research or be an expansion of earlier research that has not been previously published. Preference is given to entirely new research projects. The fellow must grant M+ exclusive priority to publish the research following the completion of the project.

Applicants are required to provide (in English or Chinese):

• A research proposal (no more than 1,000 words).
• A full curriculum vitae covering education, professional experience, honours, awards, and publications.
• Two letters of recommendation (academic or professional) submitted directly from the referees.

Please submit your application (research proposal and full curriculum vitae) in digital format via Google form. Referees should submit their letters of recommendation (academic or professional) directly to [email protected].

The deadline for submitting the application is 30 November 2026, 11:59pm (UTC +8).

Shortlisted candidates might be invited to an in-person or remote interview. Results will be announced in early 2027.

The following criteria are considered when assessing each application:

• original proposal that expands and reinterprets existing knowledge, or produces new knowledge, of the histories of Chinese art
• potential for expanding the understanding and scope of the museum’s collection, programming, and curatorial strategies in Chinese contemporary art
• proven ability of the candidate to undertake advanced research

For enquiries, please contact [email protected] using the following email subject line format:

[M+ Sigg Fellowship 2026/27 Application] SURNAME, First name

The concept of ‘sites’ has always been central to contemporary art practices and discourses. In China, the decade from the early 1990s to 2000s was a period when experimental practices in contemporary art were perceived with skepticism by the official art system and exhibiting channels were not fully influenced by commercial systems. With the expansion of art media and the diversity of curatorial practices, the sites where art was created and viewed, as well as the relationship between art and sites, had become equally essential subjects as art creation. In addition, the emergence of alternative spaces, as well as immaterialized and mobile art spaces, continued to stimulate new artistic concepts and expressions.

The research direction of this edition of the Sigg Fellowship aims to generate a holistic view of the dialogue between Chinese contemporary art and sites from the 1990s to early 2000s, focusing on areas and cases that have not been fully explored in the current art historical discourses. This includes, but is not limited to, how sites inspire new forms of artistic expression, how changing urban spaces create tensions and new understanding of art creation, and how local and international theories influence site-related artistic and curatorial practices.

Members of the Jury

• Iftikhar Dadi (John H. Burris Professor in History of Art, Cornell University)
• Russell Storer (Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs, M+)
• Wu Mo (Sigg Curator, M+)

She holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Barcelona and an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London. Her research focuses on ethnic identity, site-specific art, and cultural and historical dynamics of frontier regions within Chinese contemporary art, with particular emphasis on the northwestern autonomous regions of Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and others. She investigates how artists from marginalised ethnic communities reconstruct cultural identity and discursive spaces through artistic practice within complex historical and cultural frameworks. Her major publications include How Chinese Contemporary Art Presents/Studies the Margins of Society: Cultural Homogenization, Socio-Political and Artistic Borders in contemporary China (2024) and China Today: Minorities, Cultures and Society (2022), among others. She has curated exhibitions such as From the Dividing Line (CaixaForum Barcelona, 2024), The Protector (Aimer Art Museum, Beijing, 2022), Silent Narratives (MOCA Yinchuan, 2019), Survey (MOCA Chengdu, 2014), and more. In 2022, she was awarded the Comisart grant for Support for Curatorial Creation (Apoyo a la Creación) by the La Caixa Foundation.

Read Dr. Mei Huang’s essay ‘The Places We Didn’t Look From: Tracing Site-Specific Art by Ethnic Minority Artists in Tibet and Inner Mongolia, 1990–2000s’.

In the 1980s during the ’85 New Wave Movement, Conceptual Art emerged in China and was represented by the artist groups Xiamen Dada, Pond Society in Hangzhou, and the New Measurement Group in Beijing. These groups were formed within three to five years, and eventually disbanded due to various factors. In contrast to the humanistic stance and emphasis on aesthetic and emotional expression that characterised new art movements during the time, these Conceptual Art groups abandoned traditional visual expression and materiality. They accentuated concepts and rationality within the artistic process, and used actions, language, and live performance as the main mediums of expression. Although their activities were overshadowed by better known movements such as Political Pop and Cynical Realism, their work had a profound impact on the development of  Conceptualism, multimedia expansion, and curatorial practices in contemporary Chinese art.

We hope research in this edition of the Sigg Fellowship can generate a holistic view of the theoretical and linguistic origins of Conceptualism in China, specifically in terms of their collective and individual practices, their relationship to global art, and their subsequent influence on the history and context of Chinese art.

Members of the Jury

• Claire Bishop (Professor of Art History, Graduate Center, City University of New York)
• Doryun Chong (Deputy Director, Curatorial and Chief Curator, M+)
• Pauline J. Yao (Lead Curator, Visual Art, M+)

Grey Matter, a research group consisting of Yun Qiu, Xiaofan Wu, and Luqi Lin, was founded in 2022 in Shanghai. Its current research focus is on the conceptual practices of Chinese female artists in the last three decades of the 20th century.

Read Grey Matter’s essay ‘Undercurrent: Retracing the Narratives of the Conceptual Practices of Chinese Women Artists in the 1980s and Early 1990s’.

The 1980s in China saw a blossoming of artist groups and movements and a catalysing of avant-garde creative practices. But what were the sources of the ideas and artistic languages that defined the new wave during this time? The framework of the 2020 fellowship seeks to situate the avant-garde in its wider historical context in the twentieth century, addressing art practices from the end of the Cultural Revolution through the 1980s, as well as the experience of modernism in the 1930s and in the early years of the People’s Republic. This fellowship supports a research project that addresses a certain aspect of the 1980s avant-garde and its lineage, to broaden and add nuance to an understanding of this critical period in the history of art in China.

Members of the Jury

• Geremie R. Barmé (Historian and Sinologist, Wellington)
• Pi Li (Sigg Senior Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs, M+)
• Pauline J. Yao (Lead Curator, Visual Art, M+)

Yang Zi

Yang Zi received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and religious studies from Nanjing University and is currently an independent curator. He has worked in art criticism and curating for nearly ten years. From 2012 to 2014, he was an editor of LEAP, and he has written extensively for a range of publications, including Artforum China, Art Bank, Art Time, and LEAP. In 2015, after joining the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), he acted as executive editor on a series of catalogues for Wang Yin, Liu Wei, Xu Zhen, and Zeng Fanzhi and curated exhibitions and public programmes. In 2018, he became a curator and the head of public programmes at UCCA. His curatorial projects include La Chair, Secret Chamber, Pity Party, Land of the Lustrous, In Younger Days, and solo exhibitions of Zhao Bandi, Xie Nanxing, Wu Wei, Jiang Cheng, Xie Yi, Gao Yuan, Cai Zeibin, Chang Yunhan, Yang Luzi, Yu Honglei, Zhu Changquan, and 3d groups. He was a finalist for the Hyundai Blue Prize in 2017, and in 2019 he was one of the primary judges of the Huayu Youth Award.

Read Yang Zi's essay ‘Diffused Religion and the Origins of Chinese Avant-Garde Art’.