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Artist's Statement

Born and raised in an artist family in Beijing, China, I had a great passion and love for drawing and coloring when I was a boy. I was greatly inspired by my artist/educator grandfather and artist/educator father. I am very grateful that I was fortunately given the opportunity to learn drawing and coloring skills during my early childhood at home.

Thus, even when I was a boy, I looked at the world and its beauty with love and passion. While I spent time drawing plaster casts and still-lives in the studio, I also went out to paint. I fell in love with the “ordinary outdoors” around me: the alley, train station and street, sunset over the tundra, mid-day in the backyard, white poplar woods, and local pond, etc. I enhanced my grasp of both color and light by making hundreds of sketches from life. These studies accelerated my tremendous skill for an art portraying beautiful moments in nature from a personal point of view.

In the years that followed, I graduated from the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing and Carnegie-Mellon University in the U.S. with my BFA and MFA degrees, respectively. My past endeavors reflected the diversity of my passion in pursuits such as Scene Designer at the Central Ballet Theatre in Beijing. Meanwhile, I illustrated children's books and magazine articles, designed sets and costumes for theatre, and designed for theme park projects for several cities in China and the U.S.

My inspiration derived from the everyday life, also from people - it may be the snow covered trees and hills on my way to work, or the sunset on my way home, and people with strong characteristics and features. I am attracted by the peaceful and harmony of nature, the color of light, reflection and the shadow, and a lot more. I persuade the intentionally accident effect and well performed brushstroke and vivid colors. Each painting goes beyond mere subject matter and I am hoping it is able to take the viewer on that same journey.

About

Xiaogang Zhu, a native of Beijing, China, now lives and works in St. Louis, MO.

Education

Zhu received his formal art education in China, and the United States. In 1982, Zhu graduated with a BFA in theater set design from the Central Academy of Drama at Beijing. He then worked at China Ballet as a set design for fifteen years. In 1997 Zhu studied at the School of Theater of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In 2000, he received his master degree of set design. Since then, he had been working at the Suzanne Sessions Inc. as a designer until 2007. After that he is currently working at PGAV as a designer.

Approch

Zhu’s expressive painterly approach is largely influenced by the direct and fluent style of early European, Russian, and American impressionists and realists.  Zhu enjoys painting people from life settings and en plein air landscape outdoor wherever he goes.

Awards

Zhu’s artworks have won the finalist of the 18th and 26th Annual Art Competition of Artist’s Magazine in 2002 and 2009.

In a few times, my portraits in oil have been put in the final list for the National Portrait Painting Award Competitions for the Artists Magazine in the US.

Updated: 2010.03.03

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