Blurring the line between movement and paint
Versatile artist, choreographer and director Shen Wei unites traditions from East and West to explore universal themes, Minlu Zhang reports in New York.
"All the things I am curious about and love, I try to learn," Shen says. Over time, these diverse experiences, from Chinese traditional arts to Western contemporary arts, from opera to painting, from dance to film, have shaped not only his perception but also his creations.
"I never intentionally tried to combine them," he says, "but my senses and understanding have evolved. Each medium opens a different perspective, allowing me to see a work of art more comprehensively, not just from an Eastern or Western viewpoint, but from a human civilization perspective."
Shen's recent abstract landscape paintings continue his dialogue with traditional Chinese shanshui painting and the natural world. Monumental in scale, the works carry a cinematic quality that draws viewers in, encouraging them to engage physically with the canvases and to reflect deeply on the relationship between nature, movement and perception, according to the introduction to the dual-venue exhibition.
One example of this is the large brown-toned painting that greets visitors upon entering Shen's exhibition at the Pocantico Center. One of his recent works during the pandemic, Shen pushed the limits of brown oil paint with a work using only browns, but with different layers and difficult techniques, created while he was reading Dante's Divine Comedy.
Shen was thinking not only about landscapes, but also about spiritual journeys, says London the curator, adding that the work was technically very complex, and what he was able to achieve with just that one color on linen is remarkable.
The commonality of art
Shen says he hopes his exhibition allows people to feel something universal, from shared human sensitivity and the beauty in nature, to the invisible essence of the natural world and the sense of timelessness within it.
"This, I think, is a human commonality. In Chinese culture, this feeling is especially strong, and it can be expressed through traditional Chinese artistic forms. At the same time, you can present it in a more direct and contemporary way, which makes it deeply powerful and moving for audiences," Shen says.
