Blue Line Arts: Interview with 石墨 Shimo

Tell me about your History?

I was born and raised in Shanghai, China, and am now among the most respected artists in China. I received my BA from the China People's Liberation Army Arts Academy (Beijing) in 1983, and my MA from the Shanghai University Art Institute (Shanghai daxue meishu xueyuan) in 2003. I have studied with Jiangsu artist, Liu Kansheng (b. 1910, a disciple of Shanghai master Zhang Daqian, 1899-1983), and also with the celebrated artist Zhang Dazhuang (1903-1980) who is a faculty member at the Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy. Having established myself as one of Asia's most eminent artists, I now reside in Sacramento, California where I have lived since 2003.

Over the years, I have held numerous positions in the art community in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. These include memberships in the Chinese National Artists Association, the Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Institute, served as President of the Shanghai Modern Art Institute, Vice Chairman of the Shenzhen Art Research Society, Board Member of the New Hong Kong People's Club, and Honorable Chairman of the Hong Kong China Research Institute.

Before the Storm

My art can be found in collections around the world, with displays in the Tiananmen Museum of the State Department, Beijing; the Beijing International Art Museum; the US Embassy, Beijing; the Shanghai Art Museum; the Zhenghai Art Museum, Zhejiang; the Henan Calligraphy and Painting Institute; the Shenzhen Art Museum; the Bank of China, Hong Kong; the Bali Museum, Indonesia; and in California, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, and the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. I have also exhibited my work in solo exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Ninbo, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand, and the US.


Blessing from Heaven

How do you describe your art?

My art blends traditional Chinese technique with a modern aesthetic.
I synthesize the virtuoso handling of Chinese ink-and-brush painting and its aim to convey idea over exact appearance with 21st-century artistic impulse. While my painting is predominantly inspired by the rich cultural inheritance of Chinese painting, I unabashedly embrace bold color and multilayered effects in my individual style.

As I matured as an artist, I broke away from my training by adopting specially-developed bright inks and acrylic colors. Using sweeping strokes applied with large brushes, I reinterpret the landscape and floral motifs associated with traditional Chinese painting by emphasizing saturated hue and the interplay of negative and positive space. Such abstraction spans Eastern and Western sensibilities as well as traditional and modern modes. Best among my subjects is the lotus, the motif used in Force Meeting, Before Storm, which was collected by the Crocker Art Museum and Sacramento Convention Center. In Chinese painting, the lotus is a centuries-old symbol of mankind's fleeting perfection in the face of inevitable decay. Realized through broad areas of richly pooled color, this painting offers unexpected textural nuance and poetic detail.

Force Meeting

What mediums do you work in?

I work in various mediums, using a combination of ink and water as well as ink and acrylic on paper, mixed media on canvas, and creating designs and prints on blue and white porcelain vases and silk material to create bold and colorfully-rich art.

What inspires you? What other artists inspire you?

Since I was little, it has been my passion to become a great artist. I am inspired by the master artist Zhang Daqian, and the great Impressionist artist, Claude Monet.

Have you found a lot of professional and personal success through your art?
I opened a new chapter in traditional Chinese painting, created my individual "Accumulated Ink" (ji-mo) method and my own painting "language." And I have been acclaimed as a respresentive of "Neo-Eastern Expressionism."