In the mid-1980s, Wang Guangyi espoused a humanist vision of art for post-Mao China. His series of paintings entitled "Frozen North Pole" sought to evoke, in the artist's words, "a kind of beauty of sublime reason which contains constant, harmonious feelings of humanity." Abstract human figures place

Bright, Chinese grey humor, Citational, Collage, Parody, Playful, Political, Political pop, Pop

Olia Lialina is a brazen new voice whose emergence is owed to the World Wide Web. An artist and polemicist, she is seemingly everywhere in on- and offline discussions concerning the development of Internet art, or as she calls it, "net.art." From her home base in Moscow (Lialina is Russian-born), she

Melancholy, Net art, Political, Quirky, Rebel, Technology

For Video artist Stan Douglas, the moment is always a multiple, layered event. Each moment speaks in chorus -- sometimes in harmony, sometimes not, but always in provocative juxtaposition. Take his 1994 piece entitled "Evening." On three screens that are almost cinematic in scope, three stations

Deconstructive, Distorted, Dystopic, Ironic, Layered, Political

Kara Walker uses the silhouette, that old parlor craft practiced by bonneted ladies, to create installations, prints, and paintings that stir intense controversy. The body of her work focuses on the antebellum South and the iconography and stereotypes surrounding African Americans, especially the ima

Figurative painting, Parody, Political, Severe, Violent