Qian Gang

Qian Gang was born in Shanghai in 1958. In 1976, the artist was sent to the countryside to be re-educated for the next 5 years of his life. The son of a famous painter, Qian Da Xing, Qian Gang’s father is renowned for his advertisements and works created during the Cultural Revolution.

Influenced by both his forced move out of the city as well as his father’s skill as a painter, Qian Gang became a self-taught artist, following the intuition of his personal experiences to inform his choice of subject matter.

In 1981, Qian Gang entered the Shanghai Light Industry Institute where he was trained as an interior designer and later opened his own company of interior design. In 1988, he moved to the United States to attend the San Francisco Art Academy, after which he moved to New York to work for VIAMAX Studio. Since 1994, Qian Gang has resided in Shanghai.

Qian Gang’s paintings, both in colour and black and white, depict figures, often with animals, in interiors and in landscapes. Using expanses of uninflected colour, the painter creates an abstract, poetic realm where human beings and the natural environment become a continuous whole. At once graphic and expressive, Qian Gang’s work is a personal meditation on love, nature, and the beauty of women.

Qian Gang’s precise attention to detail allows him to conjure scenes with a marked economy of form, yet allows for a convincing sense of three-dimensional space. This approach fosters a particularly contemporary sense of restrained emotionality and cool romanticism. Set against the backdrop of nature, his black and white paintings portray an individual, often a woman, happily coexisting in her surroundings. Qian Gang’s vision of our relationship with nature defies the common notion of isolation and loneliness, and instead emphasises the beauty of being at one with the environment. Materialism is obsolete in this domain, and the focus is directed towards the tranquility and purity of the settings. Though seen in solitude, the woman shown in these paintings is never lonely.

Qian Gang’s paintings evoke a personal and emotional connection often lost in contemporary art. His appreciation for love and romance depart from the traditional perceptions fostered by a patriarchal society. In believing that “everybody should live,” Qian Gang maintains a positive approach to living that is invariably reflected and displayed in his work.

His romantic approach to love led him on a journey abroad, where hardship inevitably ensued along the way. Years even went by where painting became secondary, often occurring late in the evenings or even at all. His passion lies in his heart; one might say he lives for love having stated “in an abstracted way love is beautiful.”

Artworks: (Click images to view details)