Overview

b. 1962 in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, lives and works in New York.

 

Wang Mansheng is a self-taught ink painter who explores a wide range of techniques, tools and media in concert with literati brushwork to compose subject matter in dialogue with classical Chinese literature. Incorporating modern strategies into the introspective serenity of traditional Chinese art, Wang aims to capture the spirit of Chinese master painters, while revitalizing and transforming the essence of their work in his landscape painting, calligraphy, monotype and woodcut Buddha sculptures.  

 

Wang started practicing calligraphy and digging deep into Chinese classical literature on his own in his early years, growing up with five siblings in a coal mining town in Northern China. Following his graduation in 1985 from the Chinese Department of Fudan University in Shanghai, where he majored in classical Chinese, Wang worked for over a decade as an editor, director and producer at China Central Television in Beijing. His work took him throughout China, where he experienced museums, natural landscapes and cultural scenes.  Early on in his career, Dunhuang’s caves, wall paintings, and sculpture, as well as the endless desert, far-away hills and mountains greatly influenced his ideas on use of media, brush strokes, and tools. In 1996, he immigrated to the United States where he began his career as an artist, adeptly combining his Eastern education and philosophy with Western perspectives. 

 

Wang has managed to develop his unique approach by uniting his modern experiences with China’s collective cultural history. Taken from the indivisible interconnection of text and image inherent to Asian praxis, Wang’s art frequently employs symbolic Chinese themes, such as the Buddha, the waterfall, mountains, and silence.

 

Wang's works are drawn primarily from his imagination, informed by his deep love of nature, particularly mountains, a favorite destination for the sketches and photography that serve as a resource.  His feelings and mood lead him to his subject matter; he often begins with an abstract monotype image and then steps back to see where the 'veins' of the formations and flow of water reveal themselves. Through the layering of bold brushwork, ink washes and unconventional techniques that combine printing and painting, his works feel more three-dimensional than classical Chinese paintings.

 

Wang's accomplishments are substantiated by the recognition and support he has received from institutions and collectors. His works have been exhibited around the world and are in the permanent collection of museums, including the Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Brooklyn Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery and the Princeton Art Museum. In China, he has shown his work at the Beijing Art Museum, Today Art Museum in Beijing, Xuhui Art Museum in Shanghai and Shanxi Museum in Taiyuan. Wang has also lectured and given demonstrations on Chinese art and culture at universities and museums, including Columbia University, Rubin Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York University, The New School and Boston University.

Works
  • Wang Mansheng, At Night, Going out from Western Archery Hall, 2021
    At Night, Going out from Western Archery Hall, 2021
  • Wang Mansheng, Climbing Incense Burner Peak, 2021
    Climbing Incense Burner Peak, 2021
  • Wang Mansheng, High hills rising to graceful peaks,From afar, all are marvelous. Tao Yuanming (c. 365—427) Matching [a verse] by Registrar Guo, 2017
    High hills rising to graceful peaks,From afar, all are marvelous. Tao Yuanming (c. 365—427) Matching [a verse] by Registrar Guo, 2017
  • Wang Mansheng, 崖上丹枫 A Flaming Maple on the Cliff, 2017
    崖上丹枫 A Flaming Maple on the Cliff, 2017
  • Wang Mansheng, Reed Brush to Paint Ancient Pine, 2016
    Reed Brush to Paint Ancient Pine, 2016
  • Wang Mansheng, Watching a South Mountain Evening, 2015
    Watching a South Mountain Evening, 2015
  • Wang Mansheng, Deep in the Mountains Searching for Ancient Trees No. 5, 2014
    Deep in the Mountains Searching for Ancient Trees No. 5, 2014
  • Wang Mansheng, 山中清凉 Refreshing Mountain 01, 2014
    山中清凉 Refreshing Mountain 01, 2014
  • Wang Mansheng, Calling the Recluse by Lu Ji, 2013
    Calling the Recluse by Lu Ji, 2013
  • Wang Mansheng, Diary of Travels West of Changchun Zhenren 長春真人西遊記, 2013
    Diary of Travels West of Changchun Zhenren 長春真人西遊記, 2013
  • Wang Mansheng, Gazing at Mt. Lu’s Waterfall Springs from Hukou, 2013
    Gazing at Mt. Lu’s Waterfall Springs from Hukou, 2013
  • Wang Mansheng, Gazing North Toward Mt. Su Dan 北望蘇耽山, 2013
    Gazing North Toward Mt. Su Dan 北望蘇耽山, 2013
  • Wang Mansheng, Responding to Yan Gong, 2013
    Responding to Yan Gong, 2013
  • Wang Mansheng, Rocks on Travels Down the Gan River 下灨石, 2013
    Rocks on Travels Down the Gan River 下灨石, 2013
  • Wang Mansheng, 山静如太谷 The Silent Mountain, 2013
    山静如太谷 The Silent Mountain, 2013
  • Wang Mansheng, 明月如霜,好风如水 Frosty Moonlight, Mellow Wind, 2013
    明月如霜,好风如水 Frosty Moonlight, Mellow Wind, 2013
  • Wang Mansheng, Remaining Snow, 2010
    Remaining Snow, 2010
  • Wang Mansheng, 還家 Going Home, 2010
    還家 Going Home, 2010
  • Wang Mansheng, Calling the Recluse 招隱詩, 2009
    Calling the Recluse 招隱詩, 2009
  • Wang Mansheng, Poem of Roving in the Mountains, 2009
    Poem of Roving in the Mountains, 2009
  • Wang Mansheng, Searching for Master Yong’s Hermitage, 2009
    Searching for Master Yong’s Hermitage, 2009
  • Wang Mansheng, Stone Gate Cliff Lodge 石門巖上宿, 2009
    Stone Gate Cliff Lodge 石門巖上宿, 2009
  • Wang Mansheng, 最后一抹余晖 Alpenglow, 2008
    最后一抹余晖 Alpenglow, 2008
Biography

Education

 

1981-1985 Bachelor in Arts (Classical Chinese Literature), Shanghai 
  Fudan University, Shanghai, China

 

Solo Exhibition

 

2022

Cloud Wanderings of Wang Mansheng, Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden, New York, USA

 

Moonlight on Stones, Fu Qiumeng Fine Art, New York, USA

2020 From Silk Road to Hudson River, Charles E. Shain Library, Connecticut College, USA
2019 From Silk Road to Hudson River, Hastings on Hudson, New York, USA
2016 Mansheng Wang: Mind Landscape, Rasti Chinese Art, Hong Kong, China
2014 Deep in the Mountains, Seeking Ancient Trees, Shanxi Museum, Taiyuan, China
2013 One Can Pick Lotus in Jiang Nan, Shanghai Xuhui Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2012 Brushing Aside Clouds, Seeking the Ancient Road, Rockefeller Brother Fund, New York, USA
  Against a Tree, Listening to the Flowing Spring, The Galleries at the Interchurch Center, New York, USA
2011 Wang Mansheng: Mind Like Water, Chappaqua Library Gallery, New York, USA
  Mansheng Wang: Art and Artlessness, Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College, CUNY, New York, USA

 

Group Exhibition

 

2022

The Magic of Zen, New York United Nations Header Headquarters, New York, USA

2021 Contemporary Ceramics and Ink Paintings, The Montmeat Maurel Gallery, Paris, France
 

Fine Art Asia, The Hong Kong Convention Center, Rasti Chinese Art, Hong Kong, China

 

On Gathering, 4th Street Gallery, Texas, USA

 

A Garden of Words: The Calligraphy of Liu Fang Yuan Part II, Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Garden, San Marino, USA

2020 A Garden of Words: The Calligraphy of Liu Fang Yuan Part I, The Huntington, San Marino, USA
2019 Arts of China: New Acquisitions of Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA 
  Fine Art Asia, Rasti Chinese Art, Hong Kong, China
  Summerfest, Kaikodo, New York, USA 
  Chinese Landscape Rethought, Lyman Allyn Art Museum, Connecticut, USA
  The Experience of Looking, Rasti Chinese Art, Hong Kong, China
  Same Window, Different Dream, Shanghai Qiuhaitang Art Center, Shanghai, China
  Art Week New York: Migration, New York, USA
2018 Fine Art Asia, Rasti Chinese Art, Hong Kong, China
  Purity of Mind, Fu Qiumeng Fine Art, New York, USA
2017 Soul Apart, Fu Qiumeng Fine Art, New York, USA 
  Beyond the Landscape, Fu Qiumeng Fine Art, New York, USA
2016 Gifts from the Tang Center, Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey, USA
  Embracing Antiquity, Kaikodo, New York, USA
  Ink Asia, Rasti Chinese Art, Hong Kong, China
2015 Asian Art In London, Longdon, England
  Masterpiece London, London, England
2014 INSPIRED BY DUNHUANG: Re-creation in Contemporary 
  Chinese Art, China Institute, New York, USA
  Asian Week, Kaikodo, New York, NY, USA
  TEFAF, Netherland
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