Ms.Wang Lili's Masterpieces

Childhoods

Ying Chun

Tan Chun

Xi Chun

Ms.Wang Lili,who was born in Cheng Du, Szechuan Province. Now is being the Vice President of Chinese Artists Association, the Member of Calligraphy and Painting Research Institute,the member of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Paintists Association etc.

more on: http://slide.collection.sina.com.cn/slide_26_18496_12927.html#p=5

Paul S. Brown Oil Painting Exhibition

Paul S. Brown, who was born in the United Sate on 11th August 1967, studied at The University of St Andrews during 1988-1989 and the Italy Academy of Fine Arts in Florence during 1990-1992. Currently, he has settled down in London with his family.

more on http://slide.collection.sina.com.cn/slide_26_18496_12643.html#p=1

Traditional art in a Western form

An array of Gu Liming's menshen paintings

IN Chinese folklore, menshen are the gods that guard the door. Doors are not just physically made for apartments, courtyards and cities, they could also be an abstract gateway that connects and separates the inside from the outside. That partly explains why the Chinese worship menshen, who are supposed to protect people from evil spirits and perhaps can be bribed to let them slip into a privileged territory.

In Chinese tradition, there are menshen for art and sports, for blessing and well-being. People paste the pictures of menshen on their doors during the Spring Festival to celebrate the god's birthday on the 15th of the first lunar month. The traditional woodblock print, known for portraying various forms of menshen, has long been practiced in Tianjin’s Yangliuqing, Suzhou's Taohuawu and Weifang's Yangjiabu.

Gu Liming, professor of Chinese Academy of Fine Arts, has drawn from that tradition in his hometown Weifang, Shandong Province, and converted it into modern art. Until Jan. 17, more than 50 of Gu’s paintings, themed around menshen, are on display at Artron Art Gallery in Futian District.

"It took more than two years to prepare this exhibition," said Wan Jie, board chairman of Artron Group. "Many of the paintings have to be borrowed from private collectors in Taiwan and other Chinese provinces. It's meaningful to have this show right ahead of the Chinese New Year, when some of us would like to look back at our tradition and study it from a distance."

Gu, born in 1963, has been strongly influenced by the Western abstract trends in the 1980s like most Chinese artists of his time. Since the early 1990s, however, he began to move away from contemporary Western art, attempting to find his own style and create some real contemporary Chinese work.

He studied Han-Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D.220) relics of silk clothes unearthed in Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan Province and made the relics his subject of painting. Using black, white and gray, he combined order and chaos, brightness and dullness in his paintings to present the decayed delicate gowns.

In 1993, the artist found new inspiration in the woodblock prints of his hometown.

"I was especially fascinated by the 'wrong prints.' Those were thrown away because mistakes during production made them deviate from the norm of a traditional print. Either the outline did not match the block of color, or two blocks of color overlapped, or the prints were in the wrong sequence," Gu said. "The result was like deconstructing the tradition."

"What I imitate — the woodblock prints — are not unpolished but a highly sophisticated form of art. It cannot be re-created by simply trying to perfect the form. What I do is deconstruct and reconstruct the prints and rebuild their structure in my painting," he said.

"Traditional culture is grandiose and mysterious to me. Our understanding of it is incomplete. I can feel the connection but cannot capture the whole of it. To express the feeling of attraction and distance, I give all my paintings a grim tone in terms of color."

Always presented in pairs, Gu's early oil paintings of menshen used heavy brushes of decorative colors to add fun to the majesty of the theme. Seven years ago, the artist started to experiment with chalk on papers to explore the changes of lines and surfaces. He lightened up the images of menshen and made it less tense. He also combined the styles of porcelain art into his paintings.

Exhibition: A converted tradition

Time: Until Jan 17

Venue: Artron Art Gallery, Caitian Road, Futian District

Exhibition of Wang Xi's Works

Young as he may be, Wang Xi has always kept low-key. However, his works on exhibition this time have been free from his usual style of melancholy and repression. Instead, his works are becoming bright and clear and his styles of painting this time are vivid, positive, and vibrant with life. His depiction of a Sichuan suburb is extraordinary. In his paintings, the sky is airy and tranquil, which echoes eminating from sallow mountain rocks and exuberant green grass. The combination of the three different painting styles vividly reveals the suburb in the scorching sun. Underneath his motionless appearance, the overwhelming feeling inside his heart is so imposing.

Time: December 9, 2011 - February 18, 2012

Venue: 5 Art Space, No. 365, Tianhe Road

Back to Baroque - Naples Paintings

Over ten artists from China and Italy have worked for over two years for this exhibition. It presents 40 selected oil paintings that can be traced back to more than 300 years ago. Its exhibitions pieces are from the Museum of Capodimonte. It has combined the most representative art genres, covering realistic, classical, Baroque, Rococo and other artistic styles. From the perspective of spiritual world and real life, it shows the highest achievements of painting and the overall artistic style.

The exhibition is initiated by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage. Its exhibitions are from the Museum of Capodimonte. Guangzhou is the third stop of its China tour. This exhibition in the Guangdong Provincial Museum has 40 original fine Baroque paintings so that more people get a better understanding of Western painting, sculpture, architecture, music, drama.

This exhibition is definitely a MUST SEE for lovers of fine paintings. So expand your horizons and make time to come!

Venue: Guangdong Provincial Museum