When the Chinese Arts Centre celebrated their twenty first anniversary last year they decided it would be a good time to try to find where they, and Chinese art are now positioned in the globalised art world. They wanted to know if their  aim in increasing the visibility of Chinese artists was still their core desire. So who should they ask these questions? Who better than the artists themselves? The Centre asked one artist for each year they had been in existence and 21 was born. Each of the artists will have their views and opinion along side a showcase of their works.

Felicity Clarke from the Chinese Arts Centre said, "There are many many artists that we would love to have included and have worked with over the years but this would be impossible. As the publication was commissioned as we celebrated our 21st anniversary, we felt it appropriate to choose 21. The criteria was that the artists be UK based, mid career to established, and have worked with Chinese Arts Centre before therefore we have an existing relationship and the interviews are based on a mature understanding. There are many more that we would love to have featured and we hope that the publication draws attention to the sheer wealth of talent amongst the artists of Chinese descent working in the UK

To provide a critical framework in which the individual artists' interviews can be understood and analyse the changing role of Chinese Arts Centre, Chinese Arts Centre's curators past and present come together for a discussion on the development of British Chinese arts over the last two decades. One interviewer is Sarah Champion, the CEO of the Chinese Arts Centre whilst the other is David Hancock who has been involved with the Chinese Arts Centre since 2001. He is a practicing artist, lecturer and residency coordinator for the centre.

The Chinese Arts Centre was established in 1986 with a sole aim, to promote and support artists of Chinese descent through exhibitions, residencies, commissions, festivals, publications and agency work. More recently, the Centre received a £2.5million grant from the lottery using it to construct the purpose-built new centre. The building won a RIBA Award for architecture soon after, and in 2006 they won a Pearl Award for creative excellence.

The book accounts the artists views on Chinese art's development in the UK. Each artist gives an individual account of their experiences as an artist of Chinese descent, and explore issues of institutional racism in the 1980s, the dissatisfaction with the communist programmed art coming out of China at the time and today's rising interest in all things Chinese.

The book contains some of the most talented artists of Chinese descent in the UK including Lesley Anderson who was involved in the black art movement of the 1980s, JJ and Cai best known perhaps for jumping on Tracey Emin's My Bed and also the international solo artist Gordon Cheung.

21 also has many other fascinating artists:

Anthony Key he is also an established sculptor who was born in South Africa and moved to England at the age of 23 and international photographer Anthony Lam has received widespread coverage for a range of his works, especially notes from the street 1995.

New Zealand born Chinese Denise Kum has already had an exhibition in the CAC in Manchester in 2004. The established artist has had many exhibitions all over the globe and brings her wealth of knowledge to 21, whilst Hong Kong born Dinu Li uses film, photography and video to express herself and currently lives and works in Manchester. Eric Fong is a London-based visual artist who uses various media to explore biomedical issues and perceptual experiences such as the phantom limb. Erika Tan is a British-based artist and curator from Singapore whose work has evolved from an interest in anthropology and the moving image.

35 year old Chong Kwan is a Scottish-Chinese artist whose work is often situated outside conventional gallery space and uses photography, installation, video and performance. Creator of the centre for Chinese visual art, Jiang Jiehong, has had well received exhibitions from Birmingham to Hong Kong. Visual artist Kwong Lee has appeared in several exhibitions including access permitted 2006. Lisa Cheung's practice as an artist is multifaceted and she uses a variety of media such as drawing, sculpture, installation and photography. Ming Wong is an artist exploring the performative veneers of language and identity, through his re-workings of world cinema classics or foreign language film, TV & stage productions. He lives and works in Berlin & Singapore.

Nora Fok is an artist that is strictly hand-made only and works from home in Hove whilst Pamela So was born in Glasgow, Scotland. She graduated from Glasgow University and afterwards from the Environmental Art Department at Glasgow School of Art in 1998. Since then, she has worked as a freelance artist based in Glasgow and North Ayrshire. She has undertaken Public Art commissions and devised many education projects using her own work as a reference point.

Shelley Wilson has worked with the scientific community (research laboratories, hospitals and academic institutions) for the past 10 years. This has resulted in collaborations between Wilson and various scientists, clinicians and has culminated in a series of exhibitions that have been shown at diverse venues.

Susan Pui San Lok studied Fine Art at Bretton Hall College and Feminism and Visual Arts at the University of Leeds. She has since undertaken doctoral research at the University of East London, and is currently Research Associate at Middlesex University. She explores notions of authenticity and translation by including second-hand or borrowed objects and time worn materials into her installations, thus inviting the viewer to invent the work's undisclosed histories.

The book will make its official launch at one of the featured artists' exhibitions. October 9th will see Suki Chan open Interval II  which runs until 22 December 2008. Interval is a film installation project by interdisciplinary artist Suki Chan exploring our transient relationships with buildings and the nature of our inhabitation of space and time, with particular reference to two contrasting types of architecture from British and Chinese history and culture. The work uses light, moving image, electronics and sound with mixed media installation to create a sensual experience inviting the viewer to meditate on their relationship to a larger environment. 

21 will retail for £15 when released and can be bought from the Chinese Arts Centre. For more information about the book and other exhibitions visit their website.