If you look into it, you’ll see numerous brushstrokes, where each one begins and ends, how water and colour were used and its relationship to the canvas, and all those specific details.[...] If you read into it, you’ll discover there’s a depth of ink painting in there. For most people who just look it over, they won’t see anything. If you don’t scrutinize the work, you won’t see these things, or be able to enter into its creative process. Much of my work is a pursuit of a kind of spirit of ink painting’.
After thirty years of practicing and creating art, Shen has become an artist with a profound influence in today’s art world, stirring “us to think and to perceive aesthetically, to open new conduits of perception and thought in the act of painting and in the reasoned meditative pose necessary to appreciate truly significant abstract painting.” (Robert C. Morgan) His work blends multiple cultural elements as he layers concepts of time and space with Zen philosophy, meditation, and repetition. Lilly Wei notes how, “in this perceptual vanishing and reconstitution, a cycle of meditation is established for the viewer in which what exists and what does not is inseparable.” Valerie Smith further emphasizes “what does emerge is a highly considered process that is immersive…to a peaceful place where there is time.” His paintings transport us—they bring us “full circle; just as the breath moves from emptiness to plenitude, so does our mind appreciate the void out of which all things originate.” (Jonathan Goodman)
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015 (forthcoming) SHEN CHEN, 10 Chancery Lane, Hong Kong
2014 SHEN CHEN – Paintings, Galerie Frank Schlag, Germany
2013 BETWEEN THE LINES, Canvas International Art, Amsterdam
2012 SHEN CHEN, Elisabeth de Brabant Art Center, Shanghai
SHEN CHEN, Galerie Frank Schlag, Essen, Germany
SHEN CHEN, Cynthia Reeves Contemporary Art, New England
2011 SHEN CHEN – Paintings, Elisabeth de Brabant Art Center, Shanghai
Selected Works from Sanshang Museum, Elisabeth de Brabant Art Center, Shanghai
2010 SHEN CHEN, San Shang Museum of Contemporary Art, Zhejiang
Paintings by SHEN CHEN, Shanghai University Art Center, Shanghai
2009 SHEN CHEN, Cynthia Reeves Contemporary Art, New York
2008 SHEN CHEN, Today Art Museum, Beijing
Void but Complete Pictures – Recent Works by SHEN CHEN, Nantong Art Museum, Jiangsu
SHEN CHEN - Recent Works, SanShang Museum of Contemporary Art, Beijing
2006 SHEN CHEN – Recent Paintings, Gallery 456, New York
1994 SHEN CHEN, Ink Paintings, Gallery White Art, Tokyo
1991 Ink of China - Paintings by SHEN CHEN, Mentor Gallery, Virginia
1988 SHEN CHEN- Paintings, China National Museum of Art, Beijing
1987 Abstract Ink Paintings by SHEN CHEN, Beijing Gallery, Beijing
1986 Ink Paintings by SHEN CHEN, Ancient Observatory Gallery, Beijing
1985 A Collection of Ink Paintings by SHEN CHEN, Roma Academy of Fine Art, Rome
1984 Fresh Experience - Abstract Ink Paintings by SHEN CHEN, China Journalist Society, Beijing
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2013 Asian Contemporary Art from China, Japan and Korea, Galerie Frank Schlag, Essen, Germany
2012 China /Germany: Abstract Painting Today, WILO Art Foundation, Dortmund, Germany & Beijing, China
Chinese Abstract (Slow) Art, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Germany
2011 Buddha’s Trace - Contemporary Art from Asia, Bochum Museum, Germany
Chinese Abstract Painting Now, Galerie Frank Schlag, Essen, Germany
Chinese Abstract (Slow) Art, Singer Museum, Laren, the Netherlands
2010 Assimilating Antiquity, Yuan Art Museum, Beijing
The Coincidence of Opposites, Causey Contemporary, New York
2009 Contemporary Ink Painting, Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai
How Chinese, Gallery 456, New York
The Power of Contemporary Chinese Abstraction, Macao Museum of Art, Macao
Remembering how the air shimmers- Abstract art by Three Artists. 1918 Art Space, Shanghai
2008 Turn to Abstract - A Retrospective of Shanghai Experimental Art 1976-1985, Zhendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai
Quiet Quest: Realism to Abstraction. One Moon Gallery, Beijing
Asian Contemporary Art, Sotheby’s, New York
2007 Qi Yun-An International Traveling Exhibition of Chinese Abstraction, Hexiangning Museum, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen; Art Now Gallery, Beijing; Hanart TZ Gallery, Artist Commune, Hong Kong; China Square Gallery, New York
Echoes & Reflections, China Square Gallery, New York
2006 Queens International, Queens Museum of Art, New York
New Chinese Occidentalism- Chinese Contemporary Art in New York, Ethan Cohen Gallery, New York
2005 Simplicity, Crystal Art Foundation, New York
The Art Ville, Two Times Thirteen Gallery, New York
2003 Creations on Paper by Chinese Artists, China 2000 Fine Art Gallery, New York
1998 Skowhegan Alumni Exhibition, David Beitzel Gallery, New York
1995 Pacific Artists in New York, New World Arts Center, New York
1993 Paintings by Three Contemporary Chinese Artists, Avatar Gallery, Chicago
1990 Contemporary Chinese Paintings, Muse Gallery, Boston
41’ Salon Jeune Peinture 1990, Grand Palais, Paris
1989 Beijing - New York, Contemporary Chinese & American Art II, Nielsen Gallery, Boston
1988 Beijing-New York, Contemporary Chinese & American Art l, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, New York
1986 Grand Exhibition – Youth Artists, China National Museum of Art, Beijing
Paintings by Eight Artists, Zhongshan Park Gallery, Beijing
1982 Annual Exhibition - Oil Paintings, Shanghai Museum of Art, Shanghai
1981 Art of Youth Artists, Youth Palace, Shanghai
New Paintings, Ningbo Museum of Art, Zhejiang
1980 Water Color and Gouache Paintings, Circuit Exhibition in Six Provinces, Shanghai Museum of Art, Nanjing art Museum, Guangzhou Museum of Art
1979 Annual Art Exhibition, Shanghai Museum of Art, Shanghai
1978 Wild Rose - An Exhibition of Experimental Art, Shanghai Academy of Theater, Shanghai