At the recent Internationale Handwerksmesse (IHM) – International Trade Fair for Crafts and Design – held in Munich, Germany, Chinese artists Wei Zixin and Wang Zhipeng were awarded the Bavarian State Prize for Crafts and the Herbert Hofmann Prize respectively. These are two of the most prestigious international honors in contemporary jewelry art.

On March 16, 2026, a delegation led by Ken Neil, Vice President of the Royal College of Art (RCA), visited the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). President Lin Mao met with the guests, and the two sides exchanged views on deepening cooperation in art education and promoting cultural exchange between the two institutions.

On the afternoon of March 9, 2026, Professor Chiara Paolino, Director of the International Art Management Department at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Italy, and her delegation visited the College of Humanities of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), embarking on a cross-cultural journey of intangible cultural heritage experience and exchange dialogue.

From February 20 to March 5, 2026, with the approval of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), the program “Masterclass with a World-Class Artist — Antonio López García Masterclass” was successfully held in Spain. The program was coordinated by the CAFA International Art Education Exchange Center and organized by the Oil Painting Department.

Recently, the winners of the iF Design Award 2026 were officially announced. The project “Texture Axis” (TEXTURE AXIS), designed by a team led by teacher Pan Jingru from the School of Design at Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), received the prestigious award.

On February 9, the Year of the Horse celebration themed "Galloping Forward with the United Nations" was held at the UN Headquarters. The event was attended by Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations Ambassador Fu Cong, Deputy Permanent Representative Ambassador Sun Lei, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed and 12 other UN Under-Secretaries-General, representatives to the UN from more than 120 countries, and over 500 guests from various sectors in the eastern United States.

Recently, at the invitation and with the support of the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in China, a delegation of faculty and students from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) visited the UAE to carry out a program of on-site sketching, field research, and artistic exchange. This initiative was conducted within the framework of the Belt and Road cultural exchange mechanism and represents an important component of CAFA’s ongoing efforts to promote China–UAE youth art exchange programs.

On January 25, Lin Mao, President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), met with a delegation led by Ms. Renata Cristina Mazzantini, Director of the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rome. The meeting focused on cultural exchange between China and Italy, professional collaboration between art institutions, and potential future partnerships, laying a solid foundation for deeper cooperation.

On January 21, 2026, Lin Mao, President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), met with Jean-François Larrieu, President of the TAYLOR Foundation, and his delegation. The two sides engaged in in-depth and productive discussions on promoting mutual artistic understanding between China and France and advancing institutional collaboration. They explored potential cooperation in areas including joint curatorial projects, artist residencies, academic exchange, and public art initiatives.

The bookplate, or ex-libris, which is an adaptation from the Latin generally taken to mean 'from the books of', used to be a mark of possession that the book lover pastes in his books, usually on the inside of the front cover, to denote his ownership. It was originally used to mark the gift and ownership of manuscript books in Germany about 1480. The earliest English bookplate dates circa 1520, the earliest French design circa 1574, whilst in America the date is circa 1642. One of the sixteenth century English bookplates was made for no less a personage than Sir Nicholas Bacon, the father of Sir Francis Bacon. 

On the stage of the 2025 CCTV Science Gala, leading scientists and industry pioneers gathered — alongside a special guest from the arts: Lin Mao, President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). With imagination-driven storytelling, he explored the moment when technology and art converge at the “peak.”

The exhibition Qian Xinye: Overseas Residency Project Review opened at 3:00 p.m. on December 23, 2025, at the Ink Laboratory Gallery (Basement Level, Building 5) of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). Initiated by CAFA’s School of Chinese Painting, the exhibition presents the latest outcomes of the school’s international residency program.

In December, the School of Calligraphy at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) organized two cultural exchange activities for international exchange students from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Bangladesh, offering them an immersive introduction to Chinese calligraphy and seal carving.

On December 10, 2025, Cassius Antônio da Rosa, Vice Minister of Culture of Brazil, led a delegation to visit the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). The visit took place on the eve of the launch of the “China–Brazil Year of Culture 2026,” marking an important moment for bilateral cultural exchange and laying a solid foundation for deepening cultural and artistic collaboration between the two sides. Xu Yang, Secretary of the Party Committee of CAFA, held in-depth discussions with Vice Minister da Rosa on advancing cultural and artistic cooperation under the framework of the China–Brazil Year of Culture.

Through abstract consciousness and visual artistic shaping, Li Jiwei's latest work "Position"(2023-2025) presents an asymmetrical form that transcends the esthetic and functional expectations of a traditional seat. By incorporating diverse material textures, transparent perspectives, and the expressive allure of painted color, Li expands the visual perception of seating—infusing the object with broader, more nuanced meanings of "Position," while constructing a dialogue with the spatial environment of CAFA Art Museum.

Taikang Art Museum presents The River Divides, The World Connects in Beijing, which is Liu Xiaodong’s most systematic and comprehensive solo presentation to date, bringing together more than 70 original works created from the late 1970s to 2025, forming a condensed portrait of his over-four-decade artistic trajectory. Structured around two parallel threads—“East of the River / West of the River” and “What to Paint / How to Paint”—the exhibition approaches Liu’s work from both geographical and spiritual, thematic and methodological perspectives. Through the interweaving of time and space, it reveals the artist’s continuous process of renewal and reinvention between lived reality and the act of painting.

From November 22 through to December 28, 2025, Tan Tan’s solo exhibition Keep Gathering is on display at Double Double Gallery in Beijing. Through the two mediums of oil painting and pastel on paper, the artist draws inspiration from “home”, capturing everyday visual fragments from various corners of her home and the “simulated homes” in IKEA stores.

On December 5, the Ministry of Education of China and the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Space jointly hosted the Second China–France Education Development Forum in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Huai Jinpeng, China’s Minister of Education, and Philippe Batiste, France’s Minister of Higher Education, Research and Space, attended the forum and delivered keynote speeches.

The moving image refers to a dynamic visual representation that encompasses film, video, animation, video games, and other various forms of digital media which have shaped how we see and feel the world. With selected screenings on the art, history, and new development of the moving image from Spain, CAFA Art Museum presents “OFF-CAMERA: Moving Image” in Beijing.

“Imported Oil Painting: A Retrospective Exhibition of the Maksimov Oil Painting Training Program at CAFA (1955-1957)” was unveiled at CAFA Art Museum on November 21, 2025. The exhibition showcases more than 240 works from the Maksimov Oil Painting Training Program, abundant literature and historical photographs, as well as hundreds of publications, which comprehensively review the teaching achievements of the Maksimov Oil Painting Training Program at CAFA.