This beautiful black and white piece is part of the current show on Shanghai at the Asian. Born in Shanghai (1961), Zheng Chongbin studied in China before traveling to the U.S. where he received am MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1991. Like may other contemporary Chinese artists, he is bi-cultural , spending his time between China and the U.S.. His work reflects influences from both cultures - Chinese Ink meets Rothko! His work is abstract and yet, also resonates with subtle links to traditional Chinese landscape painting.
He paints on paper with ink but also but uses acrylic and fixer create a sense of depth and deeper, darker and richer tones of black. When I heard him talk, he spoke of how traditional Chinese painting - particularly contemporary traditional painting - can suffer from washed out colors and lack of spacial depth. The current show at the Asian contains many such pieces from artists that I wish could be shown in more detail. The good thing about a survey show is that it's a survey and an introduction to art that we don't know about. The bad thing about a survey is that it's often a once-over-lightly to artists that should be shown in greater detail. Knowing the Asian, I am sure that they will be showing more of these artists in the years to come.
information from the catalogue of the exhibit: Shanghai, Art of the City
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