Chen Shuzhong

Chen Shu Zhong A mature and well-established artist, this 60s Chinese Contemporary Artist from Liaoning is a powerhouse with a strong following of patrons, Shuzhong graduated from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang, but quickly outshone his teachers and peer garnering critical acclaim by both the locals and the rest of the world. He holds the position of Dean, mentor and Professor at the prestigious Sichuan Art Academy’s oil painting department.

A master in landscape and the figurative, he astounds viewers with detailed and surrealistic scenes of the northern China’s rural life and its people. Holding a touch of the renaissance, the intimate, personal scenes touch his audience with its sincerity and passion. Shuzhong paints the paradise, which he so desires; the quiet and happy village life that is giving away to the ever hungry and demanding city life in many parts of the China. Unlike many of his peers, he chooses to focus on the lower class and reminds us of the forgotten: Mother Nature, much like Flemish Renaissance artist Peter Bruggel. However, he consciously works towards a unique style that is uniquely his is it conceptually or aesthetically as expected of the Dean of one of the best academics in China.

Like the smallest artist Rene Magritte, he utilizes artistic license to enlarge motifs like the Sichan steamboat and local produce, especially significant in his Wild Grasslands series that takle China’s rural life head on. It is however distinct: though grandiose and skillful, Shuzhong deliberately creates a flat, innocent childlike perspective on the foreground of many of his works with great effect. The ingenuity and appeal of this artist in the magical transformation of the recording of history is no question.