Shen Jiawei

Infobox Artist


name = Jiawei Shen
birthname = 沈嘉蔚 (Pinyin: Shĕn Jiā wèi)
birthdate = September 16, 1948
nationality = Chinese Australian
field = Painting
works = "Standing Guard for Our Great Motherland" (1974)"At the Turn of the Century" (1998)

Portrait of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (2005)

Shen Jiawei (born 1948) is a Chinese-Australian painter. He is a winner of the Sir John Sulman Prize.

Life and work

Shen Jiawei was born in Shanghai and emigrated to Australia in 1989. He was largely self-taught and became popular with the Chinese government for his 'revolutionary' images of workers and soldiers. His best known work from that period, “Standing Guard for Our Great Motherland” (1974) was subsequently shown in the Guggenheim Museum, both in New York and Bilbao, in the China: 5000 Years exhibition, 1998.

In 1995 he won the Mary McKillop Art Award and received a medal from Pope John Paul II. Shen is now one of Australia’s leading portrait artists known for the academic and literary qualities of his works.

Shen is also a painter of large-scale history pictures represented in major public collections including the National Art Gallery of China and the Museum of the Chinese Revolution, in Beijing. His more playful works examine political and cross-cultural issues through appropriation. “Absolute Truth” (2000) shows Gorbachov and the Pope conversing in the Sistine Chapel and in “Wise Men from the East” (2002) the Magi in Leonardo da Vinci's unfinished Adoration of the Magi are Chinese sages. [cite web | url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/01/1033283488932.html | title=Artist with awesome promise must escape the mosh pit | author=Bruce James | publisher=Sydney Morning Herald | accessdate=2007-09-05 | date=October 2, 2002]

Recent portraits include Melbourne's Lord Mayor, John So in a possum skin cloak (2003), the Hon. Tom Hughes AO QC and the portrait of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (2005) which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra.

In 2006, he won the Sir John Sulman Prize.

His wife Lan Wang is an artist and sculptor and his daughter is currently studying at the University of New South Wales.

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.nsw.nationaltrust.org.au/properties/gallery/exhibitions/salon/default.asp Australian National Trust gallery]
* [http://www.portrait.gov.au/exhibit/truth/shen.html Portraits by Shen, from the Government of Australia]
* [http://www.arttrail.com.au/artists/jiawei/index.html Art Trail Australia]

Persondata
NAME=Shen Jiawei
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Chinese-Australian painter
DATE OF BIRTH=1948
PLACE OF BIRTH=Shanghai, China
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=