CHINA 2000 FINE ART

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On Exhibit
Between the lines, paintings and sculptures by Hilda Shen, Pang Tao, Shen Chen.

China 2000 Fine Art (5 East 57th Street in Manhattan) takes great pleasure in presenting Between the Lines, an exhibition of painting and sculpture by three remarkable artists. Pang Tao, a female artist living in Beijing, works in acrylic and oil on canvas, Hilda Shen, a New York based artist, will exhibit her sculptures, paintings and a wall installation, and Shen Chen, also living in New York, will show his paintings in acrylic on canvas.

Pang Tao, The Inspiration of bronze No. B20. 71 x 59 in. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 1990.

Pang Tao, the daughter of two artists, Pang Xunqin and Qiu Ti, was born in 1934 in Shanghai. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1953 and 1955. There she taught painting for over thirty years. She was one of the Academy’s first professors to research art materials and contemporary painting in Paris and published her findings in two books that have benefited Chinese artists considerably.

In 1947, Pang Tao held her first show at the age of thirteen with her younger brother Pang Jiun in Guangzhou. The following year, they held an oil painting exhibition at the Yili Art Gallery in Shanghai. Her work won first prize at the Beijing Art Exhibition in 1980. In 1984, Recent Works by Lin Gang [her husband] and Pang Tao was published and in 1986, she had a solo show at the Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The daughter of two artists, she married an artist, and their daughter, Lin Yan, an artist, married the artist Wei Jia.

Pang Tao, after going through many years of political turmoil, began a series of paintings related to the designs of Chinese bronzes. The series utilizes approaches to abstraction drawn from cubism, abstract expressionism and constructivism to create formal compositions inspired by one of the most ancient Chinese art forms. The Chinese bronze provides the raw material for painstaking analysis of form. Employing expressive brushstrokes full of strength and energy, she transforms the shapes of bronzes into flat pattern oriented surfaces filled with bold colors. Here the outline of the bronze is shattered and then carefully reassembled into a field of intricately interlocked planes. The rhythmic alternations of the precisely delineated color planes give these compositions an almost musical quality. This series marked a turning point in her artistic creativity from realism to semi-abstraction.

Hilda Shen, Orb #2. 15 x 15 x 20 in. Paper, ink and wood, 2003.

Hilda Shen was born in the United States in 1954 and received her BA from Oberlin College and her MFA from City University of New York in 1988. Currently, she is teaching art at Riverdale School under a faculty grant. She has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions that have been highly acclaimed. Shen, a sculptor and painter, brings into play the two thousand year tradition of Chinese art to enrich her contemporary perceptions. In her three-dimensional “Landscapes,’ her sculptures, the most obvious reference is to the long tradition of Chinese scholar rocks, which are collected and treasured as miniature landscapes and contemplative objects. A second reference is to her own landscape drawings. Nevertheless, her primary interest resides in the combination of these two references with the fingerprints, which have all kinds of associations for her—touch, human marks both visible and invisible, and the history of collecting. “Fingerprint Wall” is a site-specific piece that combines her ideas about fingerprints with her ideas about walls. Walls, whether great or not, have their own histories of construction, purpose, and design. Hilda Shen is using the only freestanding wall in the gallery space to invite the viewer to think about these ideas.

Shen chen, Diary 661 -01. 42 x 108 in. Acrylic on canvas, 2001.

Shen Chen was born in Shanghai in 1955. He studied both theatre design and studio arts in Shanghai, Maine, New York and Massachusetts, has been involved in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Europe, and China, and has completed set designs for several theatre productions. Chen has written about artistic creativity: “Every creative process, from pondering in front of the blank canvas to reveling in the completion of a work, is a silent but powerful and sensational dialogue. The sensibility of an artist, brewed in the experiences of routine life and the observation of every vivid moment, is the finest impulse vibrating in the innermost heart. Driven by such, I translate my inspiration into abstract power and vigorous vision.” In Shen Chen’s acrylics on canvas, among the overlapping, colliding, and conflicting tints and motions of the brushstrokes, are spirits sparkling, bursting, and reconciling. The spirits and emotions emerge as colors, dark or light, strong or subtle, tell the ebbs and flows of time, and transmit into ideology and sentiment. Shedding luster on Chen’s inner mindscapes is a cultural and aesthetic background combining both eastern tradition and western influence. He has further written, “Artists are mavericks who develop their own individualism and ingenuities that stand out from the majority. The persistence to be both distinctive and original is always self-challenging.”

PANG TAO

Born 1934 in Shanghai, China
Lives and works in Beijing, China

EDUCATION
Atelier of Technique of Painting, Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France, 1984-1985 Master of Fine Arts, 1955 Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China Bachelor of Fine Arts, 1953 Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China Professor of painting, 1955-1989

SELECTED EXHIBITION
2001 Research and Beyond – Small Oil Paintings, National Museum of Art, Beijing, China 2000 Oil Paintings in 20th Century China. National Museum of Art, Beijing, China Pang Xunqin’s Family – Nine artists and Three Generations, Shanghai 1998 Three Generations of Chinese Modernism, Soho 20 Gallery, NYC, USA, National Museum of Art, Beijing, China, Art Beatus Gallery, Vancouver, Canada. China 5000, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA Contemporary Chinese Landscape Paintings. Beijing, China 1997 The Storm Society & Post-Storm Art Phenomenon, Chin Show Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan 1992 24th International Art Festival, Ville de Cagnes-Sur-Mer, France 1990 Art Exhibition from the Pang Family, Lung Men Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan 1987 Nine Women Artists, National Museum of Art, Beijing, China 1986 Bronze - New Paintings by Pang Tao, Museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China 1948 Oil Paintings by Pang Tao & Pang Jiun, YiLi Art Gallery, Shanghai, China 1947 Solo Exhibition, The Provincial Library, Guangzhou, China From the 1950's, Pang Tao's paintings have been selected for major national art exhibitions more than 70 times.

AWARDS
1993 First Prize of Science Technology, Institute of Social Science, Beijing, China 1980 First Prize, The City of Beijing Art Exhibition, Beijing, China 1979 Excellent Work, The National Art Exhibition, Beijing, China

PUBLICATION
Modern Materials and Techniques of Painting, Overseas Chinese Publishing Co., Beijing, China, 1995 Art Materials in Contemporary French Painting, ShanXi People's Art Publishing Co., Xian, China, 1984, 1986, 1992. Recent Works by Lin Gang and Pang Tao, Hebei Art Publishing Co., China, 1984

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Three Generations of Chinese Modernism, Art Beatus Gallery, Canada, Hong Kong, 1998 The Storm Society & Post-Storm Art Phenomenon, Chin Show Publishing Co., Ltd. Taipei, Taiwan, 1997 International Who's Who of Professional & Business Women, 4th edition, American Biographical Institute, USA. 1995 International Who's Who of Women, 13th edition, International Biographical Center, England, 1992

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP
National Association of Artists, China Board of Directors of Association for Oil Painting Research, China

HILDA SHEN

Born 1954 in United States of America

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Art Projects International, New York, NY Sculpture and Drawings, November, 2002. Art Projects International, New York, NY Drawing, 2001-2002. Albright-Knox Members’ Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY Drawings, 2000-2001. Trans Hudson Gallery, New York, NY “Drawing”, June 2000. Kim Foster Gallery, New York, NY “Small Abstractions”, July 1999. Longwood Arts Gallery, Bronx, NY Solo Exhibition, December 1998-February 1999. LiebmanMagnan, New York, NY “Body Snatchers”, July 1998. Taipei Gallery, New York, NY “Site of Asia, Site of Body”, March-April 1998. Leonora Vega Gallery, New York, NY Solo Exhibition, September 1996. TransHudson Gallery, New York, NY “Personal”, September1996. Kouros Gallery, New York, NY Group Invitational, June 1995. Artists Space, New York, NY “Selected Works”–1992, “Small Works”–1991. Asian American Arts Centre, New York, NY “Ten Chinatown”, October 1988. Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA Four Artists, November.

AWARDS
Riverdale Country School Faculty Grant, 2002, 1999, 1996. The Millay Colony for the Arts, Resident Artist 1998. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Ware Traveling Prize (Travel in Italy) 1985.

VISITING ARTIST
SUNY Rockland- Winter 2002,2000 The Nightingale-BamfordSchool Spring 2002, Spring 1999 New York, NY. CUNY Queens CollegeGraduate Art Department Spring 1996, Flushing, NY. New York Studio Program (AICAD) Spring 1991, New York, NY.

EDUCATION
City University of New York, Queens College, NY, NY, M.F.A. in sculpture, 1988. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Certificate in sculpture, 1984. Oberlin College, B.A. in music and East Asian Studies.

REVIEWS
Fulcher, Dawn Previews: Body Snatchers , Contemporary Visual Arts, Issue 19, Spring 1998. Nadelman, Cynthia Site of Asia, Site of Body ,ARTnews, Summer 1998. Lien, Fu-Chia-Wen The Body as Metaphor for Feminist Expression , Asian Art News, July 1998. Cotter, Holland Site of Asia, Site of Body: Contemporary Asian Women Artists The New York Times, 4/24/98. Lien, Fu Site of Asia, Site of Body , (in Chinese), Artist, May 199. Su, Ying Hilda Shen at Leonora Vega Gallery , Asia-Pacific Sculpture News, Autumn 1996.

SHEN CHEN

1955 Born in Shanghai, China.

EDUCATION
1990 Boston University, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 1989 New York Studio School of Painting and Sculpture, New York, U.S.A. 1988 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine, U.S.A. 1982 Shanghai Academy of Theatre, Shanghai, China. 1978 Shanghai Art College, Shanghai, China.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: SOLO
1996 New World Arts Center, New York, U.S.A. 1994 Gallery White Art, Tokyo, Japan. 1988 China National Art Gallery, Beijing, China. 1987 Beijing Gallery, Beijing, China, Zhongshan Gallery, Beijing, China. 1986 Ancient Observatory Gallery, Beijing, China, Beijing Gallery, Beijing, China. Roma Academy of Fine Art, Rome, Italy. 1985 Chinese Journalist Society, Beijing, China

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: GROUP
1999 Studio Gallery, New York, U.S.A. 1996 New World Arts Center, New York, U.S.A. 1995 New World Arts Center, New York, U.S.A. 1993 Avatar Gallery, Chicago, U.S.A. 1991 Mentor Gallery, Virginia, U.S.A. 1990 The Muse Gallery, Boston, U.S.A., PEINTURE-90 41st Salon, Paris, France, George Sherman Union Gallery, Boston, U.S.A. 1989 Nielsen Gallery, Boston, U.S.A. 1988 Snug Harbor Cultural Center, New York, U.S.A, Beijing Art Gallery, Beijing, China. 1987 F-Art Gallery, Paris, France. 1986 China National Art Gallery, Beijing, China. 1985 China National Art Gallery, Beijing, China. 1982 Beihai Park Gallery, Beijing, China, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China. 1981 Ningbo Art Museum, Zhejiang, China, Youth Palace, Shanghai, China. 1980 Circuit Exhibition in Six Provinces, China. 1979 Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China.

THEATRE DESIGNS
2001 Set design for ”Dragons on The Wall”, Victoria Theatre, New Jersey, U.S.A. 1990 Production design for “War Dance”, B.U. Student Union, Boston, U.S.A. 1989 Production design for “Chinaman’s Chance”, Majestic Theatre, New York, U.S.A. 1987 Set design for “Scenery of Han Dynasty”, Henan Theatre, China. 1985 Set design for “Tong Que Ji”, China National Theatre, China. 1982 Set design for “A Doll’s House”, Shanghai Theatre, China. Set design for “The Silk Route”, Shanghai Theatre, China. 1981 Set design for “The Family”, Shanghai Theatre, China.

PUBLICATIONS
1994 “Shen Chen”, New York, U.S.A. 1988 “New York – Beijing”, New York, U.S.A. 1987 “A Collection of Vilma Constantini’s Poetry and Shen Chen’s Paintings”, Rome, Italy. 1985 “Comment on Shen Chen’s Painting”, Rome, Italy.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
1987 Director, China National Theatre. 1986 Member, China Youth Artist Association.

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