Under Mao, the Communist Party set out to “smash the Four Olds”: customs, culture, habits and ideas. Now the “new China” they built is itself under assault, and not only from growing wealth and freedoms. Greed, corruption, and official heavy-handedness are generating anger and anxiety. The immovable edifice of Party rule—depicted literally in Wang Guofeng’s huge photographs of Maoist monuments—is starting to show cracks.

Smash Palace showcases the reactions of China’s best artists to the shocks of the new century. Some question the solidity of the status quo; others lift the shining masks and find monsters beneath. Some artists find reality so absurd that fantasy or mockery seems the only proper response; others seek anchors in the same Olds the hard-liners were so determined to erase.

Cheng Dapeng and Zhou Jie create surreal cities using cutting-edge 3D printing and traditional ceramics. The weather balloon of Zhou Xiaohu’s Even in Fear inflates almost to bursting point, then shrinks to a wizened sack. Tu Pei-Shih’s teeming animations depict history as a path to confusion and chaos. Tzeng Yong-Ning sees his furious scribbles of red ballpoint as a direct link between traditional calligraphy and contemporary chaos. Zhang Tingqun’s intricate abstractions call to mind digital networks, but they were inspired by the cracks in old china.