The “women’s art” that Liao Wen focuses on is not “women’s painting” in the traditional sense, but the value of women’s art as a new issue in contemporary art, a living contemporary art phenomenon in progress. There is no feminist movement in China as there is in the West, and women’s art, as an issue in Chinese contemporary art, presents a special art phenomenon. This book attempts to re-examine the history and current situation of women’s art by using a personal understanding of “feminism” as a form of criticism, and suggests the importance of “mode” and “consciousness” for women’s art criticism and creation. It also suggests the importance of “approach” and “consciousness” for women’s art criticism and creation, so that we can always maintain a proactive and sober stance and a clear direction in the face of complex and difficult cultural backgrounds.

Liao Wen is a contemporary art critic, independent curator, and researcher of women’s art. She was born in Beijing in 1961, graduated from the Chinese Department of Beijing Normal University, worked as an editor and reporter for China Art Newspaper at the Fine Arts Research Institute of the China Academy of Art in 1987, and has been working as a contemporary art critic and independent curator since 1993.