Chen Jiang Hong, Slowly, 2012

Indian ink and oil on canvas
130  x 130 cm
Condition: Very good-

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Chen Jiang Hong (Chinese, b. 1963) grew up during the Cultural Revolution. He completed his studies at China’s most prestigious art academy, Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1987 before moving to Paris, where he continued his education at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. There, he worked as a freelance painter and book illustrator.

Chen’s paintings serve as a means of promoting Chinese culture, offering others a chance to connect with it. The lotus and bamboo are two common elements in his work. In Chinese culture, the lotus represents purity, enlightenment, and harmony, while bamboo represents longevity and integrity. In Chen’s artworks, audiences are able to find the kind of beauty only present in nature, abiding by the principles of Oriental ink painting where the aim is to capture the essence of a subject. Yet, his pieces also reveal a sophistication shaped by his exposure to both Eastern and Western cultures.

Chen applies Eastern and Western painting traditions by the use of Indian ink and oil paint with modern techniques with unconventional materials like wood sawdust on canvas. This fusion is a rarity in the creation of artworks, and even more so when Chen chooses to portray these classical Eastern motifs with a limited palette of black, white, red or oak. This allows the ink washes in earthy tones and abstract forms to flow naturally along the fibres of the paper, subtly revealing elements of Chinese imagery as if organically forming within the material itself.

His work has been exhibited in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Malaysia. Provenance includes the Artist’s collection, Kato Art Duo Gallery in Singapore, and private collections in Asia.