Shen Liang

Biography

Shen Liang has long explored the inner philosophy and expression of the “traditional” Eastern literati paintings, and how it is reflected in the “contemporary” daily life under the East-West confluence environment in nowadays, creates the literati painting belonging to this generation, therefore the charm and aesthetics of Chinese art has a close connection to the language of contemporary and modern painting. In Shen Liang's “repetitive painting” approach in his Bast Paper Series, he closely observes daily life and combines the spirit of Chinese ink with the medium and technology of Western art to depict red onions, melon seed husks, and garlic skins in a concrete way. By layering pigment, the artist forms simple renderings of objects that refer to their ontological states and embody an aesthetic tradition of object as reality. The artist dedicates his time to diligent brushwork and constant practice to realize the aesthetic tradition that runs in his veins.

The long-term project Painted Book Series that Shen Liang has been working on, could be regarded as the expression and extension of its interest in imitating Chinese ancient paintings. He focused his attention on hundreds of old pictures, books and magazines he had collected, painting on top of the surfaces of the original publications, with fascinating results. Not only did he echo the image and layout of each book cover, but also by appropriating many readymade images from the Song and Yuan and adding spontaneous embellishments of his own, he produced new pictures with new meaning. Mischievously, Shen interprets the lighthearted and elegant “ink play” of traditional Chinese painting by scribbling, and deploys the Eastern tradition of defacing books to subvert values and meanings, thus extending his skillful strategy of revealing connections and contradictions between high and low culture. Examples include Shen's depictions of fruit peels, melon seed husks, and flies in the elegant context of literati painting. Therefore, the Eastern literati spirit is reborn in the western techniques. In addition, through Shen Liang's personal interpretation, sometimes playful and sometimes serious, the cultivation of Chinese traditional culture has entered modern people's life with a brand new outlook.

Shen Liang, born in Liaoning Province China, 1976, graduated from Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China. His work is in collection of Seattle Art Museum, U.S.A., White Rabbit Gallery, Australia, The National Art Museum of China, and CAFA Art Museum, China. He also had solo exhibitions in Berlin and Frankfurt, Germany, New York, U.S.A, Seoul, South Korea, and Beijing, China.