{"id":63150,"date":"2026-06-23T18:08:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T10:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=63150"},"modified":"2026-06-23T18:08:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T10:08:43","slug":"lauded-chinese-ink-artist-shao-fan-on-his-journey-and-seeking-a-sense-of-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=63150","title":{"rendered":"Lauded Chinese ink artist Shao Fan on his journey and seeking \u2018a sense of presence\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Beijing-based artist Shao Fan\u2019s first memories of Chinese aesthetics are linked to his grandmother\u2019s stories \u2013 and her wardrobe.<\/p>\n

It was a sensory oasis in a bleak landscape. At the time, China was drained of colour, swept by the Cultural Revolution<\/span>\u2019s campaign against the \u201cFour Olds\u201d that sought to eradicate all traces of tradition. His grandmother would open drawers and unfold clothes, lay out accessories and let the past breathe for a moment in secret.<\/div>\n
Decades on, Shao has become one of the most celebrated contemporary Chinese ink artists<\/span>, moving fluidly between sculpture, furniture-making and interior design. He has even designed Beijing siheyuan<\/em> courtyard houses and gardens.<\/div>\n

Until late June, he presents simultaneous shows at two prestigious galleries: Mirrored Gardens at Vitamin Creative Space in Guangzhou, in China\u2019s Guangdong province, and \u201cRefrain\u201d at White Cube Mason\u2019s Yard in London.<\/p>\n

Shao\u2019s Guangzhou exhibition, \u201cThe Nature of Things\u201d, is a concise survey of two of his best-known bodies of work: his ink paintings on rice paper and his sculptural furniture pieces.<\/p>\n

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An exhibition view of Shao\u2019s \u201cThe Nature of Things\u201d exhibition at Mirrored Gardens in Guangzhou, which shows his ink paintings on rice paper and furniture sculptures. Photo: courtesy of Shao Fan and Vitamin Creative Space<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Oil painting and Western influences<\/h3>\n

Shao may be known as an ink artist, but he was consumed by oil painting long before he ever picked up a maobi<\/em> (ink brush). He never formally studied the medium, but both his parents taught Soviet-style painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, and would bring home catalogues of Western avant-garde artists that spellbound him with their chaotic, subversive pieces.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Beijing-based artist Shao Fan\u2019s first memories of Chinese aesthetics are linked to his grandmother\u2019s stories \u2013 and her wardrobe. It was a sensory oasis in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1785,107,2797,6855,4303,25290,9770,385,3738,25291],"class_list":["post-63150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-artist","tag-chinese","tag-fan","tag-ink","tag-journey","tag-lauded","tag-presence","tag-seeking","tag-sense","tag-shao","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}