Shen Chen Chinese American, b. 1955

Shen Chen was one of the leading figures of China’s abstract painting and experimental ink art movement during the 1980s and has devoted his career to exploring the possibilities of ink and the development of abstract art. The Shanghai Experimental Art Movement was an important period before the well-known The 85 New Wave Movement, which documented the Chinese early abstract and experimental art’s transition to the contemporary, a vital turning point in Chinese art history. Shen organized and participated in Wild Rose, the first experimental art exhibition, at the Shanghai Theater Academy (1978), and participated in the landmark 1986 Grand Exhibition – Youth Artists, China National Museum of Art, Beijing.

Shen Chen recapitulates the meditative and deliberative brushwork associated with traditional Chinese ink brush calligraphy and painting. His language, however, is contemporary. His fully abstract paintings, which reference the aesthetics of minimalism, are a study of brushstroke, color, and tonality. To create his subtle umber surfaces, Shen paints with a wide variety of traditional Chinese brushes. Working with canvas on the studio floor, he layers the surface by moving progressively from top to bottom, in a vertical motion. The discrete horizontal lines visible on the surface are a record of where each vertical brushstroke began and stopped. It is this meticulous layering of color that achieves the resonant tonal hues of his paintings, which also manifests his rigorous discipline.

Shen Chen’s works have been exhibited at various art museums, including National Art Museum of China, Roma Academy of Fine Arts, Today Art Museum, Queens Museum of Art, Bochum Museum, Shanghai University Museum, Hexiangning Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Chinese in America, Epoch Art Museum, Yuan Art Museum，Himalaya Museum of Art, Singer Museum of Art, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Museum Hurrle Durbach and ME Collection Berlin. His works are in many public and private collections including ME Collection Berlin (Germany),Aszo Nobel Art Foundation (Netherland), Duke Energy Corporation (USA), Johnson & Johnson Foundation (USA), Today Art Museum (China), Stibbe Collection, (Netherlands), Shanghai University (China), San Shang Museum of Contemporary Art (China), etc.