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SHAN GANG

Born

1958

He Fei, China

PROFILE

His works take inspiration and are firmly grounded in movements like Expressionism and Modernism. Yet these western ideas find expression in techniques steeped in the traditions of Chinese ink paintings. In particular, he was heavily influenced by the CoBrA group - an avant-garde movement founded in Paris which resisted the dictates of the Centre International de Documentation sur l'Art d'Avant-garde. The group's works were characterized by child-like drawings of tribal art forms that recall mythical and folkloric elements executed in bold sharp strokes. Like Folk art and Naïve art from which it draws inspiration, the palette is unflinching and strong but Shan Gang sets these against an often pallid background which heightens the dramatic effect to the extent of almost having the subject jump out of the canvas. Continuing his predecessor's abhorrence of naturalism and the sterility of abstraction, Shan Gang too breaks rank with the trend of his time and contemporaries who tend to lean towards Kitsch and cynical realism. Now working in Shanghai, he soaks in the stimuli from his collection of Chinese calligraphy, ink paintings and antiques. But it is the spontaneity and the unfettered freedom from both Eastern and Western influences that make his art that much more provocative and exciting. Shedding the conceits of the adult gaze, his child-like representations pierce through the pretence of many art genres and lay plain the essence that is Life. Shan Gang was born in He Fei in 1958 and obtained his BFA from An Hui Normal University, China. In 1988, he moved to Holland to be inspired and to work. He staged his first solo exhibition at the Lusaka Art Gallery, Lusaka, Zambia.

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EXHIBITION
2008 October	Amsterdam Trans Art Gallery in Holland, solo exhibition
2008 October	Song Zhuang art festival in Beijing, group exhibition
2008 July	Moganshan Xiangli Gallery in Shanghai, group exhibition
2008 March	Shanghai France 'GALERIE ARTENOO', group exhibition
2007 October	Shen Art Space Gallery in Shanghai, group exhibition
2005 December	Xianghai Art Gallery in Shanghai, two artists exhibition
2005 September	SH Art Space in Shanghai, three artists group exhibition
2005 March	Hailai Art Gallery in Shanghai, two artists exhibition
1999 October	China Art Museum 'Ink painting' in Beijing, group exhibition
1998 April	Art Gallery of Beijing International Art Palace, five artists exhibition
1996 September	Color Stone Art Gallery in Taiwan, four artists exhibition
1996 July	Color Stone Art Gallery 'Miro' in Taiwan, solo exhibition
1996 April	Color Stone Art Gallery 'the group show of Chinese artists' in Taiwan, group exhibition
1994 March	Amsterdam Gallery 238 in Holland, solo exhibition
1993 July	Holland 'Zist' Art festival, first prize
1992 January	Amsterdam Gallery 238 in Holland, solo exhibition
1991 July	'RAT' in Amsterdam Holland, group exhibition
1988 October	Lusaka Art Gallery in Zambia, solo exhibition