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Artist: Fan Shao ( China, 1964 - present ) -
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Genres: Contemporary Asian Art
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Biography: Shao Fan—painter, sculptor, and designer—is one of the first Chinese artists to explore the boundaries between visual art and design. Born into a renowned Beijing artist family in 1964, Shao Fan excelled in art, especially in painting. He received his first painting instruction during the Cultural Revolution, from parents who were university art professors assigned to paint Mao Zedong propaganda.
Shao Fan graduated from the Beijing Arts and Crafts College in 1984 and began exploring three-dimensional art. His attraction to design, combined with a profound interest in Chinese culture, compelled him to research woodcarvings and ceramics and led to his own signature style. Beginning to paint professionally in 1989, Shao’s passion remained rooted in three-dimensional art, which eventually led to the creation of objects that integrate both art and design.
In 1995, he created his first series of sculptural works based on Chinese Ming furniture. Provoked by what he perceived as the ‘dishonesty’ of the antique trade, Shao combined broken portions of antiquities with new industrial materials, such as MDF. Believing that all antiquities should be preserved in their original form, Shao’s “restored” pieces emphasized the new work’s industrial identity and loss of “old spirit.” Thus, Shao created a contrasting visual language, a new but distinctive aesthetic that embraced Orient and Occident, past and present, and typified China circa 1995.
As Shao’s first attempt to extend the realm of conceptual art into design, the series also marked his first solo exhibition of conceptual furniture, Chair about Chair, which premiered in 1996 at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. For the last nine years, he has created pieces to enlarge this 1995 series and has also made occasional sculptures and design for public exhibition, such as “Chinese Imagination,” a project composed of twenty sculptures installed in le Jardin des Tuileries in Paris in 2004.
In 2004, Shao Fan was invited to participate in the exhibition Awakening: La France Mandarine by Contrasts Gallery. The artist submitted Work No 1 of Year 2004, a hybrid of art and design that symbolizes the exploration of traditions and modernity that China is currently undertaking in its quest to redefine its modern identity. Made in a manner similar to traditional Chinese furniture manufacturing, this work features traditional wooden and acrylic components. Work No 1 of Year 2004 represents Shao Fan’s conviction that, in the 21st century, there are no boundaries between art and design. This piece has been recently acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Shao Fan marries the theories of modernism and deconstructionism with Chinese culture, allowing him to work freely in both art and design. Never bowing to the mainstream, Shao was nevertheless invited by the Chinese government to participate in Chinese Imagination—the closing exhibition of the China Year in France, 2004, in Paris—which featured exhibits by twenty mainstream Chinese sculptors.
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Exhibition History: Solo Exhibitions:
2005: “Ten Years Ago…,” Contrasts Gallery, Shanghai, China
2000 : NEOTU Design Gallery, Paris, France
1996 : “Chairs About Chairs,” Gallery in Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
Group Exhibitions:
2006: “Shao Fan-Pierre Marie Lejeune-Sculpteurs-Deux Propositions”, Contrasts Gallery, Beijing, China
2005 : “Contrasts and Contradictions,” Contrasts Gallery, Shanghai, China
2005: Chengdu Exhibition Biennial, Chengdu Modern Art Museum, Chengdu, China
2005: “Inspired by China”-Invitational exhibition of China and America, American Peabody Museum, Peabody, Connecticut, USA
2005: “Awakening: La France Mandarine - The French Influence on Chinese Art”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
2004: “Awakening: La France Mandarine – The French Influence on Chinese Art”, Urban Planning Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China
2004: Chinese International Architectural Art Biennale, Beijing, China
2004: “Made in China”-Contemporary Artists Conceptual Furniture Exhibition, Shanghai, China
2004: “Chinese Imagination” – Chinese Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition,
Tuileries Garden, Paris, France
2003 : Concept Furniture Exhibition, China Hi-Tech Fair Exhibition Centre, Shenzhen, China
2002: International Design Exhibition “Made for Seat,” Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
2001 : “Who Am I” Invitational Arts Exhibition, Beijing, China
2001: “New Phenomenon in Contemporary Chinese Art,” Picardi National Museum, France
2000: Selective Exhibition on Contemporary Chinese Sculpture, Oriental Square, Beijing, China
2000: BIG TORINO Biennale 2000, Torino, Italy
1999: Century Gate: Invitational Exhibition of Chinese Arts, Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum, Chengdu, China
1999: Asian Sculpture Exhibition, Singapore
1988: The Asian Biennale of Fine Arts, Tomioka City Museum, Japan
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Collections: Permanent Collections:
“Upset Season” collected by Japan Tomioka Museum
“Work No.5 of Year 2005” collected by Chengdu Modern Art Museum
“Each Other” collected by He Xiangning Museum
“King Chair,” “Work No.1 of Year 2004,” “Wei,” “Kun,” and “Moon” collected by V&A Museum, UK
“Xiudun” collected by Peabody Museum, USA
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Bibliography: Pan Zhen, “Play with China’s Traditional Element,” All about Arts, Sep. 2005: 26
Cheng Tian, “Shao Fan: Ten Years Ago,” Space, Sep. 2005
Lu Yong, “Who will Sit on Shao Fan's Chairs?” XinMIn Weekly, Aug. 12 2005: 74
Collin, “Philosophy Chairs,” Metropolis, Aug. 2005: 82-83
Maya, “Life is Design,” Design, Aug. 2005: 127-129
Chun Yi, “Why Chairs Cannot be Furniture,” XinMin City Weekly, July 28 2005: 17
Zhang Kun, “Two Lives of a Chair,” Shanghai Star, July 21 2005: 29
Sun Ling, “Concept Furniture, only for fun,” Business Times, July 20 2005: C8
“Tradition and Modernity,” Shanghai Tatler, July 2005: 22-23
Yang Zhihong, “Shao Fan: Compromise Weighs More Sometimes,” New Century, Jan. 2004: 47
“Interview of Shao Fan,” Art Gallery: 23
“Reading modern designer: Shao Fan,” Colorfulness
“New Concept of Chair,” Hunter: 124-127
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