Ink and wash painting with warm and elegant qualities, woodblock printings feel ethereal and timeless, although they are different art media, both create a unique atmosphere of the southern temperament, which is the overall visual memory of the exhibition of works by Shen Qin and Chen Qi brought to the audience. On April 25, 2015, the dual exhibition of Shen Qin and Chen Qi was unveiled at Asia Art Center, Shen Qin uses ink and wash painting, Chen Qi adheres to printmaking, both of them have persisted in their exploration with their own artistic language. With Qian Dajing serving as the academic chair, professors from the Central Academy of Fine Arts including Su Xinping, Yin Jinan, Chen Wenji and Zhang Yanzi attended the opening ceremony.

Chen Qi and Shen Qin, Chen is a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts while Shen is an artist at the Academy of Chinese Paintings of Jiangsu Province, they used to be neighburing playmates and fellow students with the same art ideals, further they share similar art styles. As Qian Dajing talked about this exhibition, “They share the same temperament of image, they are particular about quality and both of them have a neurotic pursuit, both of them come from Nanjing, therefore it is necessary to curate such a dual exhibition.” Moreover, in this noisy and complicated environment of art, these two artists basically stay in a semi-closed state of creations and they have some “exclusive” thinking, focusing on their painstaking work, Qian hoped that through this exhibition, their works would offer artistic sincerity to the visitors.

Shen Qin’s works exhibiting in this show are primarily his series of “Fields” and “Home” although he has resided in the north for quite a long time, the cultural genes born with him in Nanjing have affected him deeply. Shen Qin believed that one cannot do well in ink and wash painting unless he stayed in the south of Yangze River. Shen Qin has been working on meticulous creations, the configuration of his painting is grand and solemn, later his paintings present a gentle, fresh, and moist temperament. Chen Qi thought Shen’s work is typical of the Chinese literati painting, quiet and clean, with a spiritual cleanliness of “hermit”, full of ideas and attitudes, but also providing a new visual experience.

Woodblock printing by Chen Bi is unsurpassed, with a strong sense of industry, very rigorous design forms exist in his works to produce the technique, “watermark” which remains as the most important theme of this exhibition, they liberally give expression to this exhibition, for him, presenting the waterlines is to reflect time, conveying the connotation of history. When interviewed by CAFA ART INFO, Su Xinping, Vice President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts talked about being a print-maker, he admired Chen’s controlling capacity of materials. Many of his earlier works reflect everyday situations, with strong geographical features, later design elements were added to his works, he seeks a casual sense in his specification and he was able to make a breakthrough of ideas in the framework of the printing language, trying the conversion from two-dimensional prints to three-dimensional ones.

This is a simple, natural and clean art exhibition, these two artists from Nanjing have jointly presented a particular situation of the south in this purified space. The exhibition will remain on view until June 7.

Text and photo by Zhang Wenzhi, translated and edited by CAFA ART INFO