The ocean links every continent and island on the planet. It carried the ancient Maritime Silk Road, and later bridged the “Old Word” and the “New World” during the Age of Discovery. As a route of migration and cultural exchange, it has long enabled encounters and integrations of thought and civilization. It bears both the dreams of migrants heading toward distant horizons and their longing for home, shaping countless cultural and artistic achievements across history.

Looking back at previous editions—from the third, Southbound to Nanyang, to the fifth, To the Continent of Europe, and the sixth, Rush to Gold Mountain—this seventh edition, Where The Sea Reaches, extends those trajectories. It foregrounds the ocean’s role as a “bridge” and “passage” in today’s globalized world and highlights the connections and shared identity of Chinese communities worldwide. For decades, immigrant art has often been positioned at the “margins” of art history. Yet, with the recent “migrant turn” in the social sciences, questions of mobility, cultural exchange, and social integration have become central. Art, as a mirror of its time, not only reflects pressing issues of identity and belonging but also reveals overlooked histories and imagines futures of plural coexistence.

This year’s exhibition brings together ten artists who have long lived in Ireland, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Australia. Through painting, watercolor, acrylic, photography, video, archival work, and installation, they share perspectives shaped by cross-cultural experience. Collectively, their works suggest that Chinese culture, like seawater, flows across the globe, touching every shore. Like water, it remains fluid, diverse, and inclusive, sustaining itself through constant migration and exchange.

The exhibition also launches a special Young Chinese Artists Residency Project, inviting five artists from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands to spend a month living and working in Shenzhen. Their site-responsive works, rooted in the city’s unique local context, further emphasize the exhibition’s openness and grounding. They reaffirm its mission: to establish the exhibition project as a platform for connecting Chinese artists worldwide.