On 11 December, the 2025 Vogue Art Awards Gala was held at the Shanghai Pudong Art Museum, bringing together leading figures from the art and entertainment worlds to present a cross-disciplinary aesthetic feast under the theme ‘The Art of Poise’.
Drawing on BAZAAR ART’s in-depth observations and reporting in the fields of art and culture over the past year, the 2025 BAZAAR ART AWARDS ceremony rigorously selected honourees across six major categories who best embodied the “The Art of Poise” of 2025, covering multiple key areas.
“Artists’ Banquet” was honoured with the “Cultural and Art Project of the Year” award at the 2025 BAZAAR ART Awards. Cai Jian, one of the curators of the exhibition’s artist-curated section, and Xu Zhen, the exhibition’s chief curator, were invited to accept the award on behalf of all the curators and artists involved in the exhibition.
Today, the role of artists within the urban cultural ecosystem extends far beyond simply ‘creating artworks’. They are not only producers of art, but also initiators of cultural relationships, users of space, and an integral part of the city’s cultural mechanisms. The ‘Artists’ Treat’ project aims to emphasise and highlight the diversity of the artistic ecosystem.
In our cultural imagination, artists are often confined to the role of ‘creators’ – they produce works, participate in exhibitions, and wait to be seen. In reality, however, many artists have long since begun to proactively expand their roles. They are not only creators but can also be curators, organisers, founders of institutions, and even promoters of certain cultural practices. Such actions, arising from their own circumstances, are not deliberate but rather a natural, spontaneous and ongoing cultural practice.
Every artist contributes to the construction of the art system in their own way. By setting themes, organising events and activating spaces, they propose new ways in which art can unfold. ‘Hosting’ here is a symbolic gesture, intended to express initiative and the diversity of creative practice. Artists no longer wait to be assigned roles; instead, they organise themselves, extend invitations, define relationships and bring culture to life.
Through this project, we hope to show the audience that the role of the artist can extend from ‘artistic creation’ to ‘self-mobilisation’; that art is not merely an inevitable outcome, but also a fluid interplay of diverse relationships and structures.
—Hol Contemporary Art Platform