Chinese Cultural Promotional Society Brings Top Artists from China to Artexpo New York  March 25-27 at Pier 94 on the Hudson

NEW YORK CITY – Artexpo New York, the world's largest fine art trade show for over 32 years, announced that for a second consecutive year the Chinese Cultural Promotional Society (CCPS) will feature some of China’s most celebrated artists at the show. Artexpo will be held at Pier 94—NYC's “Art & Design Pier”—on the Hudson from March 25-27.      
 
The CCPS will present 25-30 top Chinese artists, many from the avant-garde
Beijing 798 Art District and the Song Zhuang Art District, as well as from Shanghai, and Shandong.

 

The MENTAIGNE GALLERY from Shanghai will spotlight nationally acclaimed XU JIE. Born in Shanghai and graduated from the Art Institute of Shanghai University in 1991 with a major in oil painting, she has participated in exhibitions held in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Venice and Japan. Reflecting originality and unique skill, her works have been appreciated by collectors all over the world, especially in Europe and east Asia. XU JIE’S paintings can be found in corporations, homes, and art galleries in over 30 countries.

 

 

In XU JIE’S “Chinese Boys and Girls” series of oil paintings, she puts the gaze of her subjects squarely on the viewer. Beady eyes peer at you, turning the act of observation on its head. One cannot help but become the subject of their scrutiny and wonder, “What is it they see?”

 

In a telling recount of her childhood, she refers to the boys she played with as “wild children,” and how their carefree disregard for the sun “turned our fair skin to a shade of tan and our cheeks to tomato red.” To her, those years were “a perfect dream” and she relives them on the easel in lovingly layered strokes of richly toned oil paint in the colors of her memories.

 

The multiplicity of children in her oeuvre is elucidated by the artist’s confession of being afraid of loneliness, both for herself and her only son. The unfulfilled desire to have a large family might explain why few of her subjects stand alone. In this light, the faces seem to take on a look of quiet longing.