A witness to transformation

"I do see in this new generation, a new kind of art being made," he adds. "Maybe not new to the world, but certainly new to China. The first wave was political pop, more direct and obvious work. I'm seeing a much more introspective, emotional, psychological, sexual type of work, people investigating themselves and their identity. Sun Xun is asking identity questions about his country, where it came from, where it's going and the world's perceptions."

Not everyone embraces the art pouring out of China, which has evolved from political pop to so-called Cynical Realism and grotesque self-portraiture. New Republic critic Jed Perl blasted the new Saatchi Gallery publication as "the most hateful art book published in my lifetime" and condemned some of the artists for "getting comfortable with Mao" and rehabilitating his atrocities in their work.

Jeff Kelley, an expert in Chinese contemporary art who curated the Logan collection exhibition at SFMoMA, takes a more nuanced view in his catalog essay. Art thought to represent a jaundiced reaction to rampant consumerism or government control, he contends, "has revealed itself to be more psychologically resonant than the facade of pop iconoclasm and gestures of ironic detachment might readily suggest." The mask-like visages so frequently painted may not expose the artists' souls, he writes, but they "reenact the psychic aftermath of an era in which representations of specific human emotions were replaced with the idealized faces of the Revolution."

What young artists are doing is another story, as the Southern California exhibitions reveal. The photographers at DNJ Gallery shoot pictures of people riding on trains and bicycles, panoramas of city streets, portraits of miners, dwellings in an ancient farming community. "As the culture changes, you see the subject matter changing," Elaine says. "You see what is really real and what's happening."

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The new wild West

A native of Dallas whose mother was born in China, the daughter of American missionaries, Elaine has spent several years learning to speak, read and write Chinese. But he didn't go to China until 2002, on a journey with his family.

"When I came back to L.A. from that trip I was just full of passion and fire," he says. "I had to learn the language. It was almost frenetic. I didn't know why I was doing it. I just had to. When I came to Los Angeles 10 years ago, I thought it was the Wild West. Now China is the Wild West. I love it.

"Things are changing at a rapid pace. There aren't any rules, in a way. I lived in the 798 complex [a former munitions factory converted into a sprawling art center] for two months, at a friend's studio, and I kept getting lost because the roads were changing. Now it looks like SoHo. But if you are a foreigner, you are in demand. Everyone wants to collaborate."

He'll soon be back in China, visiting out-of-the-way studios and art schools, poking into creative corners, eating in alley restaurants and absorbing the culture that feeds the art.

"I do stand out in China. I go to lectures and I'm the only Westerner there," says the tall, thin curator whose pointed features and mop of curly, gray hair are striking, even in Los Angeles. "I'm like a white crane."

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suzanne.muchnic@latimes.com