Jointly hosted by the Chinese Academy of Oil Painting and Central Studio of News Reels Production, “Images Generated from the Mind - Art Exhibition of Xin Dongwang” will open at 15:00, on April 20, 2013, at the Chinese Academy of Oil Painting Art Museum. As one of the “Academic Exhibition of Oil Painters” series, planned by the Chinese Academy of Oil Painting, it features more than one hundred works by Xin Dongwang, along with the publication of the same title, comprehensively presenting and studying the art creation of Xin Dongwang, clearly making a summary of his past creative activities , a new starting point for the artist.

“Academic Exhibition of Oil Painters” series, planned by the Chinese Academy of Oil Painting, has featured the exhibitions of noted artists including Chen Danqing, Chao Ge, Xie Dongming, Duan Zhengqu, Jiao Xiaojian, and caused huge repercussions in oil painting circles due to their academic quality and artistic standards. With exhibition, publication, transmission, and communication, it is an academic research of an artist from different aspects, attempting to go deep into the individual, to comb through the contemporary figurative paintings in China based on the academic, drawing a great prospect of Chinese figurative painting, guided by which, Chinese oil painting develops in the right direction.

Born in Hebei Province in 1963, Xin Dongwang studied in the 7th assistant training class of the Department of Oil Painting, CAFA, in 1993, he was then appointed to the Department of Oil Painting of the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in 1999, then studied in the first graduate class of the Department of Oil Painting, CAFA, he has been teaching in the Department of Painting, Academy of Art & Painting, Tsinghua University, since 2004.

Since the 1990s, Xin Dongwang has participated in many important exhibitions, winning many awards, attaining remarkable achievements. His realist paintings integrate the plastic elements of the Chinese art with fine writing performance and expression. He paints directly works facing the object, fresh and vigorous, reflecting not only the social criticism, but also humanistic care.

About the subject of the exhibition “Images Generated from the Mind”, Xin Dongwang said: “Artworks are originated from spiritual feelings and artistic thinking, in my opinion, the creative process is actually the process of “image of mind” as triggered by the “objects”. The process from nature to art is like the salvation of the soul, while the technique is the means of “practice”.

Selected Reviews on Xin’s Work:

Xin Dongwang has an important significance in contemporary Chinese oil painting, in the 1990s, the young oil painter Xin Dongwang initially painted the migrant workers in the city, portraying the peasants from a new perspective with his forward-looking and sensitivity, concerned with and influencing cultural circles. At the same time, his superb painting skills are praised by the people with the same occupation, his freehand and fine style winning many followers. The images of his underlying figures cross the normal aesthetics, to display an human dignity and humanistic care, to be an irreplaceable unique example of the whole pattern of figurative realist paintings.

?-Yang Feiyu

The themes and characters, reflected in Xin Dongwang’s works have a distinct flavor of the epoch, a calm narrative implying a strong emotion and strength, which thanks to his special life experience, as well as his innate artistic sensibility. Clearly using materials and language to create a special beauty of form, adding to works an intuitive sense of beauty and fresh vitality.

In Xin Dongwang’s works, I often find a “vigorous” element which does not only refer to the strong visual tension conveyed by the images, but also the most authentic and primitive spiritual quality of the life behind the images.

- Jia Fangzhou

About the exhibition

Hosts: Chinese Academy of Oil Painting, Central Studio of News Reels Production

Organizer: Chinese Academy of Oil Painting Art Museum

Co-organizer: Shandong Ginza Gallery

Academic Support: Chinese Artists Association, Academy of Art & Design at Tsinghua University, Institute of Contemporary Art, Academy of Art & Design at Tsinghua University, Oil Painting Art Committee of the Chinese Artists Association, China Oil Painting Society

Opening: at 15:00 pm, April 20, 2013

Duration: April 20 – May 5, 2013

Venue: Chinese Academy of Oil Painting Art Museum (No.1704, Culture and Art New Street, Gaobeidian)

Translated by Chen Peihua, edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO