ShanghART Gallery is pleased to present Landscape/Shen Fan: a solo exhibition of Shen Fan.

Besides some installation works, Shen Fan's artistic production consists primarily of two-dimensional abstract paintings (oil on canvas or paper). The images portray the minimalism of Western abstract painting, but are fundamentally different. The Chinese practice attempts to establish a balance between the spiritual and the material components of the process. Shen Fan's work can be regarded as incomplete and fragmenred records of daily meditation:  he repeats the same patterns and forms in order to remove individualism or eliminate any desire for self-exspression,  aiming for the distillation of pure spirituality. This serialization and monotonous process constitute the characteristics of Shen Fan's work.

Shen Fan's painting come across as visually pure and harmonious compositions devoid of any extravagant or superfluous elements. For the artist, the surface of the canvas becomes a field where color plays a key role. His images consist of monochromatic (and often primary) colors. His works are tactile compositions created using often a palette knife, which makes for a restrictive work structure.The result is an ambiguous space in which shapes resembling geometric diagrams are then filled out with beautifully simple and repetitious ornamental figures.With rare radicalism, the 57 year old artist always accomplishes compositions full of discipline, rigor and perfection. Shen Fan disregards representation or narrative. He instead emphasizes the pure, clean expressive methodology of the process of production and its serialization. Shen Fan therefore creates a self-referential, or perhaps 'pure' world that follows an inner logic. Silence becomes a powerful concept that addresses the intimacy between the artist's mind and material society.

Shen Fan was born in 1952 in Jangyin, Jiangsu province and resides and works in Shanghai since 1952. He has been exhibiting at Shanghart gallery since 1996. Selected exhibitions include: Out of Shanghai,  Museum gegenstandsfreier Kunst,Otterndorf,Germany (together with Ding Yi 2009), The Collection - Shen Fan Solo show , The collection Studio, Lincoln, UK (2008), Shen Fan, Ravenscout Galleries, Moscow, Russia (2008), HyperDesign,Shanghai Biennale 2006,Shanghai Art Museum (2006), Chinese Maximalism, Millenium Art Museum (Beijing,2003), Shanghai Abstract Art Group show, Liu Haisu Art Museum,(Shanghai,2002), Metaphysics 2001, Shanghai Art Museum (2002) etc.