Huang Rui/Stars Group
The Stars, Beijing, 1979
Centre Pompidou, Paris

Huang Rui/Stars Group
The Stars, Beijing, 1979
Centre Pompidou, Paris

Catalogue Commission, Forthcoming

To mark the 45th anniversary of the landmark 1979 Stars Group exhibition in Beijing, the Centre Pompidou is presenting a selection of works by its founding members, including Huang Rui. Coinciding with the museum’s major acquisitions of three important works by Huang Rui, Cheng-Lan Foundation is supporting the project through the commissioning and publication of a special exhibition catalogue. The publication honours the group’s legacy and deepens public engagement with this pivotal chapter in Chinese contemporary art, featuring newly commissioned writing and archival materials being published for the first time.

20/20: Futures Exhibition  at LCF East Bank  Decolonising the Arts Institute, UAL

20/20: Futures Exhibition

at LCF East Bank

Decolonising the Arts Institute, UAL

Exhibition Sponsorship, November 2025

The Cheng-Lan Foundation is proud to support UAL’s Decolonising the Arts Institute, founded by artist Sonia Boyce (Professor of Black Art and Design at University of the Arts London) and led by susan pui san lok (UAL Professor in Contemporary Art and Director, Decolonising Arts Institute). Developed in response to urgent calls for action across the arts to address social inequalities and racial injustices, the Institute’s landmark 20/20 programme (2021–24) saw twenty artists in residency with twenty public collections, resulting in new acquisitions and a national print portfolio.

Building on this legacy, 20/20: Futures will take place at London College of Fashion, East Bank, from 6 November 2025 to 15 January 2026. The exhibition and symposium bring together artists, partners, and supporters to reflect on the programme’s outcomes and imagine what comes next. Showcasing the work of twenty emerging and mid-career artists who participated in residencies with UK public collections, 20/20: Futures highlights creative responses that challenge social and racial inequalities and amplify underrepresented voices. Through multiple narratives and diverse media, the exhibition reflects on equity, representation, and the rethinking of dominant perspectives in contemporary art.

Further information
Cheng-Lan Foundation Insights Bursary at UAL

Cheng-Lan Foundation Insights Bursary at UAL

Education Access Scholarship, 2025/2026

The Cheng-Lan Foundation is proud to announce the Cheng-Lan Insights Bursary, supporting undergraduate students across fine art disciplines at University of the Arts London (UAL).

Valued at £6,000 per year, the bursary provides vital support for students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, with priority given to First Generation students whose parents or guardians have not completed a university degree.

The bursary forms part of UAL’s Insights Programme, which works with 16–18 year olds from underrepresented communities, care-experienced backgrounds, and lower socio-economic households. With living costs in London averaging £16,000 per year and Student Finance covering only around £12,667, the bursary helps bridge this gap and enables students to dedicate more time to their creative studies.

Through this commitment, the Cheng-Lan Foundation reaffirms its mission to expand access to art and design education and to nurture the next generation of artists.

Noah Davis’s Untitled (Birch Trees) joins 
Cheng-Lan Foundation collection

Noah Davis’s Untitled (Birch Trees) joins
Cheng-Lan Foundation collection

Major New Acquisition

Cheng-Lan Foundation is proud to announce the acquisition of Untitled (Birch Trees) (2010) by Noah Davis, most recently exhibited in The Milk of Dreams at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (April 23 – November 27, 2022), curated by Cecilia Alemani. This acquisition reflects the Foundation’s commitment to supporting artists of global majority heritage and engaging deeply with their practices.

Davis, who passed away in 2015 at the age of 32, was a visionary painter and co-founder of The Underground Museum in Los Angeles. His work is celebrated for its poignant exploration of Black life, blending everyday scenes with surreal and dreamlike elements. Untitled (Birch Trees) exemplifies his unique style, depicting a dense stand of birch trees with a barely visible figure lying among them, rendered in loose brushwork against a textured backdrop. This haunting composition invites contemplation on themes of presence and absence, memory, and the unseen.

Tesfaye Urgessa
Roots of Resilience
Sainsbury Centre, Norwich

Tesfaye Urgessa
Roots of Resilience
Sainsbury Centre, Norwich

Collection Loan and Acquisition Support, September 2025

As part of the Sainsbury Centre’s autumn 2025 season, Ethiopian artist Tesfaye Urgessa will unveil a new series of figurative paintings developed during his residency and in dialogue with the museum’s collection. Reflecting on the refugee crisis and the politics of race and identity, the works respond to urgent questions around violence, displacement, and representation. Cheng-Lan Foundation is supporting the project through both a loan and the museum acquisition of a major work created during the residency.

Further information