Qu Qianmei enjoyed many years of formal artistic training as a professional painter, but paints with her original artistic motivation and dream, revealing her original experience in the 1980s as she began her artistic career living in the cultural capitol of the world, Paris, France. Through the course of more than twenty years in France, she has visited numerous European countries, especially Greece, and all the locations which artists have long held to be part of their customary pilgrimage, which served to open her perspectives with a deep sense of Western cultural creative inspiration. The works of Antoni T?pies i Puig introduced Qu Qianmei to the world of media, in a world borrowed from the infinite beauty of the abstract and texture contrast to the arrival of creative freedom. In the backdrop of Western culture, Qu Qianmei became more aware of herself and her own native cultural traditions. After returning to China, she pursued advanced study at the Central Academy of the Arts in art media, beginning her exploration with abstract artistic creation, looking for her own unique voice and expressive method. On one trip to Tibet, Qu Qianmei was suddenly artistically inspired, opening her soul to the creative experience. The majestic towering mountains, clear lakes, splendid temples, and the traditional hada scarf floating in the heart, all helped to remove the urban hustle and bustle so the artist could find her renewed artistic home. With regard to her trip to Tibet, Qu Qianmei noted, “I always was fascinated with Tibetan culture and Tibetan customs, so when I visited Tibet, it was a joy to be free from the urban clamor and no longer see the impetuous hustle and bustle of city dwellers. What moved me the most was the sincerity of the Buddhist adherents, as they prostrated themselves, and reading their Scriptures with sense of contentment... all of which moved me deeply. After visiting Tibet, my soul found it was again at home. But my greatest influence from the Tibet trip would be on my spiritual state, as I no longer felt the vicissitudes of the past, beginning to feel quite free and naturally calm. My works then also began a natural process of transformation.” It surely seemed destiny that that trip to Tibet gave her such a depth of inspiration.

In Qu Qianmei’s works we can see her emotions cast in the media, with the red clay serving as a reminder of the soil atop the high plains, as she leads us on a journey to a mystical world, and this Shangri-La is replete with questions and reflections on life. The cliff-like texture cracked wall shows the intensity of Qu Qianmei’s life, with gorgeous color presenting a heavy emotional and delicate interpretation of Qu Qianmei. Here, as the material for the medium itself is prominent, and has become a "narrative" of the body, which is as Greenberg argued, "Art in the media," evincing a practical expression of this theory. Of course, sometimes material itself has a charming performance and expressiveness, but Qu Qingmei is not stuck in the material game, but relies on the material and form to create a composite Oriental philosophizing mood. Mixed materials, the feminine, and the traditional southern Chinese design elements reflect an artistic language whose words seem difficult for us to accurately locate in the work of Qu Qianmei. From the solitary sense of the mass of the painting to speculate on the artist’s gender, one could easily mistakenly think the artist was a male, so it is all the more surprising to learn the work is produced by a traditional southern woman's hands. In fact, it is precisely this contrast, which lets us see the explosive and infinite inherent energy of the female artist, which is so missing in today's art world, with its all too similar, and all too much formality , which has given us the viewer a sense of visual fatigue, while Qu Qianmei’s works are like a dose of decoction, which when first begun may be bitter to the taste, but in the end is aromatically pleasing like licorice.

*image (left)
courtesy of the artist