The Lunar New Year is becoming a more fantastic celebration in New York.

Nothing exemplifies that more than Fantastic Art China, a free exhibition from Feb 6-10 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.

The China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing, in conjunction with the US-China Cultural Institute and Committee of 100, is bringing the art of China to New York.

"We transported a thousand contemporary artworks from China to here," Yu Ding, dean of Arts Administration and Education Institute at CAFA, told China Daily after a press conference on Wednesday in New York. "Nobody has ever done that before. Plus, the hundreds of artworks we collected from contemporary artists here in the US; we are bringing a grand show."

The academy selected a 72,000-square-foot space at the 1.8 million square-foot center.

"We flew in to scout for a location in March last year," Yu said. "In the past year, many times we felt this was so hard because the space is so large."

It's the Year of the Monkey, and Chinese artist Duan Haikang's Golden Monkey Celebrating Spring, a 3,000-pound steel monkey mounting the clouds and riding the mist, will welcome visitors at the entrance, who will be encouraged to write, draw and put stickers on the installation.

Other works by celebrated Chinese contemporary artists include Pan Gongkai's Melt, a 72-foot-long video display focusing on the relationship between Chinese and Western art forms; Su Xinping's Men on the Run, a revealing look at living conditions and the mental state of people in today's turbulent social environment; and Jiang Jie's March Forward! March Forward!, a sculpture made of more than 1,000 ballet shoes.

The exhibition also has a section featuring works from emerging Chinese artists under age 40. Across from it is a section of art pieces from Chinese and non-Chinese young artists in the US.

"We are facilitating a talk between the artists in the two countries," said Yu, chief curator of the show. "You will be able to see the similar and different topics they are working with. This is about contemporary art. These emerging artists are the future of art."

Feb 8 also will be the first time that New York City's 1.1 million public school pupils will have the day off for Chinese New Year. They can attend a Lunar New Year Student Day at the Javits Center that day, where they will learn about Chinese art, and watch performances and a video by the Nature Conservancy on endangered golden monkeys in China's Yunnan province.

CAFA will present an artist-designed fireworks show over the Hudson River on the evening of Feb 7. Also over the weekend, there will be a light show on the Empire State Building featuring the silhouette of a monkey climbing to the top of the Big Apple.