The Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA) celebrated its 30 year anniversary in Manchester with the launch of a high profile exhibition programme featuring some of the very best Chinese contemporary artists of today. The launch opened installations from internationally acclaimed artist Xu Bing, the RareKind China international graffiti art project, Manchester legend Stanley Chow and enigmatic artist Lu Xinjian.

The anniversary programme celebrated its history and achievements over the years including the many artists it has worked with who have gone on to achieve international acclaim. Starting with Xu Bing (2015 headline artist of Venice Biennale’s China Pavillion), the Chinese arts organisation will also feature a different high-profile artist each month including Cao Fei, Tsang Kin-Wah, Lee Mingwei and Susan Pui San Lok.

Xu Bing’s exhibition presents his ground-breaking project Book from The Ground. An artist fascinated with language and communication, Xu Bing’s project presents a novel seven years in the making written in a “language of icons”. Telling the story of 24 hours in the life of office worker Mr Black, the book has no text, instead using logos, emoticons and pictograms.

The 30 year celebrations also saw the launch of CFCCA’s new print shop which opened with a specially commissioned exhibition by celebrated Manchester artist Stanley Chow. In his series of prints parodying the popular social media site, Stanley Chow’s inStanGram exhibition presents 30 unique designs that document his experiences growing up as a 2nd generation Chinese man in Manchester.