On Tuesday, March 24, 2026, Wang Yamin, curator of the Academic Department of the Art Museum at Nanjing University of the Arts, was invited to deliver a lecture at the School of Fine Arts, Nanjing Normal University. Taking a series of exhibitions curated over the past two to three years as his point of departure, he explored the central theme of “Exhibition as Information,” offering insights into curatorial thinking, practice, and critical reflection within the context of contemporary art.

At the beginning of the lecture, Wang noted that the boundaries of artistic media in contemporary art are continuously expanding. Exhibitions have long moved beyond their traditional function as platforms for display, becoming an important medium alongside painting, sculpture, and new media art. Their structures, mechanisms, and modes of expression have themselves become integral to contemporary artistic practice. Drawing on Marshall McLuhan’s well-known proposition that “the medium is the message,” Wang discussed examples from modernist painting and Duchamp’s readymades to illustrate how, in many cases, the medium itself surpasses content to become the core carrier of meaning. He further pointed out that in the era of digitalization and artificial intelligence, artistic creation is encountering new opportunities for breakthroughs in media.

In the section devoted to curatorial practice, Wang introduced the conceptual framework and implementation of several exhibition projects, including the “Great Sun and Moon” series. These exhibitions were designed not merely as display spaces, but as sites for artists’ secondary creation, as well as platforms for exploring the relationships between art, society, technology, and human experience.

Wang also addressed the current conditions and challenges facing contemporary exhibitions. While the role of the curator has become increasingly prominent, traditional museum exhibition models are simultaneously being reshaped by the impact of digital dissemination.

Through a close integration of theory and practice, the lecture not only demonstrated the Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts’ forward-looking explorations in contemporary curatorial practice, but also prompted the audience to reflect on the nature of exhibitions as a medium and the evolving boundaries of contemporary art. Wang concluded by emphasizing that future curatorial work will continue to focus on “exhibition as medium,” seeking to unlock the expressive potential of exhibitions themselves, so that they function not merely as containers of artworks, but as vital platforms for artistic creation and communication in the contemporary era.