The exhibition Yan Zhan offers a platform for young students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts to display their sculptures, paintings and installations. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Other students have already moved further ahead.

Cai Lei, a postgraduate in the sculpture department, displays an installation which can also be found in his one-man show In Ambiguous Sight. He presents 14 works in which he explores multidimensional space at a carefully curated exhibition at Linda Gallery inside 798 Art Zone.

"Graduation shows" are sometimes criticized for producing artworks too sophisticated and market-oriented, or pieces that look similar to those of the tutors who are themselves established artists.

Su, also a professor of engraving art, says it is teachers who should be blamed for not correcting their students' mistakes in time.

Liu refutes the charge that the market shapes his work. "All I do is to focus on my works and solve the problems. Simply focus and that's only how one can create a really good piece of work."

If you go

9:30 am-5:30 pm; Tuesday-Sunday, through May 18. CAFA Art Museum, 8 Huajiadi Nanjie Street, Wangjing, Chaoyang district. Beijing. 010-6477-1575.