Shen Renqian

A native of sister-city Shuzhou, Mr. Shen began to scribble at the age of five and truly hasn’t put down his paintbrush since. His works, including oil paintings, silk paintings, and clay sculptures are unique in style and free of the influence of conventional academic training. As he says,” individuality is the life of art.”

As a child, Mr. Shen showed early interest in art and painting, in particular. After some of his pictures were exhibited at regional and national exhibitions of children’s art, he started on the traditional course of artistic training. When studying at high school, however, the political climate in China changed. Like millions of young Chinese students, he fled the Cultural Revolution and spent several years in the countryside. Further academic training in art ceased from that point on, and it can be supposed that this time in his life influenced his art greatly, infusing it with a distinctively vital, direct and liberated ethic ever since. As he says, “I have never regretted my choice and have become more and more fascinated with painting. From my study in painting, I have comprehended the art of life.”

Mr. Shen’s paintings are regarded as both realistic and freehand in style. He describes paintings as “poems” and considers vitality, which is enabled by this approach, to be indispensable to most kinds of art. As he explains, “If painting can be classified as realistic and freehand, my paintings surely belong under that category. With freehand paintings, an artist can frankly express his feelings. I compose my paintings and use my brushes and paints in such a way as to place the figures and the scenery between void and reality, existence and emptiness…by which to make the brushwork develop in the sense of the audience and make the pictures full of mobile rhythm.”

Currently, Mr. Shen’s works are frequently published in newspapers and magazines, and exhibited at international art exhibitions. They are appreciated by traditional collectors and art lovers around the world. He attributes positive reception to his art this way: “I have always tried to have the audience experience the uncontaminated healthy spirit, the integration of humanity and nature and to have their hearts consoled through experiencing simplicity, vigor and intimacy. I content myself with the process of pursuit, as this is my art of existence.”