In my art, I try to explore the origins of landscape painting, attempting to return to that primordial, awestruck state of mind when human beings were facing nature. With this as a point of departure, an artist can eventually unfold a journey to a place that the viewer has never been before.
—Tai Xiangzhou
Tai Xiangzhou was born in 1968 to a scholarly family in Yinchuan, Ningxia, the former capital of the Tangut Xixia kingdom (1038-1227). During his childhood, he studied calligraphy with the exiled master Hu Gongshi (1912-1997). He further pursued the study of Chinese traditional culture with the prominent mentor Feng Qiyong (1924-2017). To enhance the depth of his art, Tai proceeded to earn a doctorate from Tsinghua University with the philosopher Bao Lin. As an artist, as well as an academic scholar, he published his dissertation Celestial Tales, which retells the history of Chinese landscape representations by delving into their origins in classical cosmology, particularly its elaborate systems of correspondence between the celestial, terrestrial, and human realms, earning increasing recognition internationally.
Tai has long concentrated on rejuvenating the idealistic forms of traditional Chinese landscape painting. His dedication to the origin and development of “Mountain and Water Representation” (Shan Shui Tu Xiang) has attracted attention from prominent eyes in the field of art. His artworks are largely based on his artistic ideologies of monumental, classicizing landscapes that envelop the vast scope of contemporary human knowledge and experience. His earlier works faithfully harmonize with traditional landscape painting from Song Dynasty (960-1279), which is a golden age for both pictorial and astral arts. From 2013 and on, with plentiful researches Tai has done for his doctoral dissertation, he further expands his perspectives of art creations into cosmology, astrology, and how they intertwine with the aesthetics of painting. His reputed series Celestial Tales,and many others,can be found in the collection of the university museums of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Because of their ability to invite viewers and readers to interact with them corporeally, ritualistically, Tai’s artworks and scholarly writings are frequently discussed in art history classes at distinguished universities.
The work can be found in the publication Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the Collection. In addition, Tai’s works also appear in the collection of Freer Gallery of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Brooklyn Museum, Asian Art museum San Francisco, Nasher Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University, Museum of the Official Provisional Municipal Council of Macau, Zhonghua Book Company, and many more institutions.
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Celestial Tales -Endless Celestial Motions 天象 - 天运不息, 2021
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Celestial Tales-Achieved the Great Form 天象-大象功成, 2021
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Celestial Tales- From Nothing to Being 天象-鸿蒙初开, 2019
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Celestial Tales No.15: The Flickering Cosmos 天象之十五:雲山明滅, 2016
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Celestial Tales No.35: Heavenly Steps 天象之三十五:天台翕然, 2016
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Celestial Tales NO.5: Harmony of the Wilderness 天象之五:渾融大野, 2016
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Celestial Chaos 7, 2014
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Rock and Calligraphy
Education
2006 - 2012 |
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Tsinghua University, Beijing, China | ||
1999 - 2001 |
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1991 - 1996 |
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1987 |
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1975 - 1979 | Studied Chinese calligraphy with Hu Gongshi and Wang Wenjun |
Solo Exhibition
2021 | Cosmoscapes: From Nothing to Being, Fu Qiumeng Fine Art, New York, USA |
Cosmoscapes: Ink Paintings by Tai Xiangzhou, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA | |
2017 | One with the Universe - Tai Xiangzhou and Zhang Yirong Ink Painting, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong |
SPECULATIVE COSMOLOGIES, Tai Xiangzhou Ink Studio, Beijing, China | |
Celestial Law, Tokyo Gallery+BTAP, Tokyo, Japan | |
2016 | Celestial Tales, Yi&C. Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan |
2015 | Celestial Tales, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, USA |
2014 | Knowing Heaven and Earth through Observation: Chinese Ink |
Paintings by Tai Xiangzhou, Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau Temporary Exhibitions Gallery, Macau S.A.R., China | |
2013 | Magnificence Within: New Ink Paintings by Tai Xiangzhou, The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, USA |
2012 | Mind Without Discrimination, Plum Blossoms Gallery, Hong Kong S.A.R., China |
Transcending Reality: New Ink Paintings by Tai Xiangzhou, The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, USA | |
2011 | Homocentric Objective: Landscape Paintings of Tai Xiangzhou, Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology |
at Peking University, Beijing, China | |
Celestial Tales: Ink Paintings by Tai Xiangzhou, 798 Art Bridge Gallery, Beijing, China |
Group Exhibition
2022 |
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2019 | Foresights: Transformation between tradition and future, Guardian Art Center, Beijing, China | |
Contempoerary Chinese Art Exhibition: Arts of China Gallery Reopening, Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA | ||
Permanent Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, USA | ||
Recent Aquisitions, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, USA | ||
Shang Shan Tang Collection, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicaog, USA | ||
Chinese Literati Art, Nelsin-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, USA | ||
Permanent Collection, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA | ||
Painted Screen: Tradition and Future, Suzhou Museum, Suzhou, China | ||
Everlasting like the Heavens: The Culture and Arts of the Zhou, Qin, Han, and Tang, Tsinghua University Art Museum, Beijing, China | ||
2018 | Splendors of the sun and moon, Museo Querini Stampalia Fondazione, Venice, Italy | |
5th Neo Moroism, Tsinghua University Art Museum, Beijing, China | ||
Intersection - International art and culture, Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University, Beijing, China | ||
Ink Worlds: Contemporary Chinese Painting from the Collection of Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford, USA | ||
Mirroring China’s Past: Emperors and Their Bronzes, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA | ||
Chinese Abstraction at Art Basel Hong Kong 2018, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong | ||
2017 | Ink Asia, Ink Studio, Hong Kong | |
West Bund, Ink Studio, Shanghai | ||
Cloudy Depths: Four Artists and Their Take On Neo - Moroism, | ||
Tokyo Gallery, Beijing, China | ||
Shuimo, Sotheby’s S2 Gallery, New York, USA |
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News | Eight FQM Artists showcase their works at the United Nations
IN CELEBRATION OF CHINESE LANGUAGE DAY 2023 April 21, 2023In celebration of the 2023 United Nations Chinese Language Day, the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the UN, the Chinese Translation...Read more -
News | FQM Artists Wang Mansheng and Tai Xiangzhou Featured in Special Exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art September 24, 2022Oneness: Nature & Connectivity in Chinese Art opened at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, featuring the works by four contemporary Chinese artists Tai Xiangzhou, Wang...Read more -
News | Five artists FQM represents are exhibiting at United Nations
In Celebration of Chinese Language Day at United Nations April 23, 2022In celebration of UN Chinese Language Day 2022, the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China, Chinese Translation Office of DGACM/DD, and UNSRC Chinese...Read more