About
Jim Chen
Artist and photographer
Brief Introduction
Jim Chen is a Chinese-Australian artist from Sydney. He is well-known in China for his work, regularly exhibiting in art and publishing sought-after books.
He started his career in a remote part of north-eastern China as part of the renowned Chinese art movement known as the Great Northern Wilderness Etching Group. During this period his prints show how he became attuned to the natural environment.
When he returned to his home city of Ningbo he branched out into painting and drawing, becoming well-known for his oil paintings, drawings and cartoons in the city’s daily newspaper.
In Australia, he has built on his artistic foundations from his early career by exploring remote and not so remote places throughout this continent.
His paintings and photographs are windows that highlight the beauty in scenes often ignored. The viewer can look back through this window and understand how a perceptive eye bonds with this country and unites different cultures.
Email:
thewildoat@gmail.com
Web:
www.jimchen.com.au
Awards and Recognitions
Art
Winner of the "Noel Chettle Memorial Art Prize" in Australia in 2012.
He has been recognised in the book of “Chinese Artists in the Modern Age” (published in 1992. Shanghai).
His printmaking work was selected by "China Modern Printmakers Exhibition" shown in Japan in 1980.
Photography
He won the Bronze Award for the Maitland International Salon Photography In 2018.
Twice Bronze Awards winner of International LOUPE Awards 2012.
Solo exhibitions:
“The Great Wildness, Light and Shadow ----Jim Chen Photography Exhibition” was held at the Ningbo 117 Art Center in China in November 2018.
The "Four Seasons" solo painting exhibition was held at the ArtShine/YUGA Gallery in Sydney Australia in September 2018.
"The Beauty of Stillness" solo photo exhibition was held at Artshine Gallery in Sydney, Australia from 8/5 - 28/5 2017.
"Jim Chen Solo Art Exhibition" was held at Chrissie Cotter Gallery in Sydney, Australia from 8/9 - 18/9 2016. Exhibited 42 pieces of paintings and 16 pieces of photographs.
(Paintings and Photos have been jointed in over 20 group exhibitions in the past 30 years in Australia and China).
Published books
“Unseen Australia” was published in Australia, 2010.
"The Artistic Beauties of Landscape Photography" was published in China, 2014.
"The Artistic Landscape Photography" was published in Taiwan, 2014.
"The Landscape through Artist's Lens" (photography techniques) Taiwan, 2016
"Phrase of the Sunny House" (essays) Australia, 2016
Over 200 paintings, illustrations and 500+ of articles were published in different publications.
My landscape photography
I feel a deep connection with the beauty of the scenery and, over a lifetime, have fallen deeply in love with it. I was one of many creative artists of the Great Northern Wilderness Etching Group. It had a strong influence on me at a very early age and is the origin of my love for scenic photography and is my most basic fundamental inspiration.
Instead of using paints and brushes, I'm now using the camera to capture the scenery. Although the medium has changed, my art is still being created with the same pair of eyes, the same capabilities and the same passion.
Landscape photographs often show a famous tourist destination or landmark, with the beauty of the photographs relying on the beauty of the location itself. My main focus is not on those. Instead, it may be a view of nooks or corners, a small piece of a wide field, an interesting shape, a tone or a group of colours. They often don't have a name, like monuments do, and because of their transient nature, it can be difficult to go back and re-shoot the same scene.
I was once an irrigation works surveyor. I have walked through weeds that were taller than me, wandering through wild bushlands and passing ducks nests from dawn till dusk. These wilderness experiences and my hands-on landscape paintings not only give me a certain degree of landscape architectural competence but have strange influences on my aesthetic preferences and how I approach my photography.
When I set out to capture a photograph I find myself attracted to capturing the natural world, rather than the people who occupy it. My pictures generally don't contain cityscapes, sail boats or other such human constructions. I take a tent, a sleeping bag and cooking utensils. I go somewhere outside the city, camp out for a few days, and the only thing I do is walk and photograph. It is my belief that scenic photography contains an angle that is overlooked by many and it has its own sense of novelty and beauty. It can be sung and recited. It is a song and a poem.
The human figure generally belongs to the foreground of an image and scenery is merely a backdrop. Most commonly, the human figure is seen as active and dynamic, occupying the 'top layer' while the scenery is still and relatively stable, occupying the 'bottom layer'. The human figure is heralded as the master and the scenery is modestly subordinated.
For me, the living space should be the subordinate. I see the characteristic of scenic photography as synonymous with and in harmony with our living space.
When I enter my dwelling after a day filled with work, what I am after is a resting place, one piece of pure art, a small patch of pure nature — a place to turn my eyes away from daily tasks and thoughts.
I feel that I have found myself as well as the most suitable place for my landscape photographs.
(Introduction of Jim Chen's book "Unseen Australia" 2010)
The Forewords
--- "Jim Chen Solo Art Exhibition"
(held at Chrissie Cotter Gallery, Sydney, 8/9 - 18/9 2016)
This is a retrospective exhibition of Jim Chen's career as an artist. His early sketches of the Great Northern Wilderness were influenced by Russian style. His printmaking pieces were romantic and lyrical with "White Clouds" and "New Field" as the representatives.
In the 1980s, Jim switched to oil painting. His lyrical styles were replaced by more thoughtful themes. In "At Buddha's Country", cheerful excited young travellers and elderly devout pilgrims together created a diverse atmosphere. "A Sunshine Spring" employed certain design elements, colours were two-dimensionally arranged while body shapes seemed to be formed by geometry blocks and with an increasing significance on the constitution of a picture. "Water Festival" was a breakthrough in both decorative style and formation sense, demonstrating an outburst and aggregation of artistic capacities.
In the 1990s in Australia, he focused on creating vigorous and interesting strokes in addition to the rhythms of human bodies in his drawings and sketches. In recent years his oil paintings have become either more realistic and figurative, or more impressionistic and powerful, or more classically attractive. His landscapes have turned semi-abstract, colours purer, and brightness contrast diminished. "Tree Series" is a symbol of vitality, employing an overflowing power of tension.
Jim seems to keep exploring something new, something unknown and something of his own and will never stop. People may feel confused about what he is doing but he just goes straight on. They wonder if Jim is involved in too many types and styles of art he may not be able to develop his own style much further. However, courageous and challenging, Jim is never satisfied with the present. His endless pursuit of art demonstrates the philosophical concepts of life quality as well as life experience.
About My Painting
In the early stages of my art exercise, from the use of lines and shadings to colours, from object depiction to subject painting, I have many modes and art forms, such as printmaking, paintings, comics, illustrations, figures and landscapes. How well a painting or image can be established depends on many factors: the expression of shapes and lines, the employ of colours and strokes and so on. Recently, I am most interested in the combination of different factors in a picture -- the "Picture Constitution", which does not only refer to the composition, but also displays the trends of light & shade, blocks, lines, and the implicated rhythm from all these.
Whether a picture in monochrome or multicolour, people may overlook the overall “hint” from the combination of those factors. They may wish to produce a true reflection of a scene out of their routine habit. He or she may give up their subjective consciousness, and as a result, the artistic significance is weakened. They may put themselves in a passive position when facing natural objects or confront living figures. I even believe that the picture structure, obvious or hidden, at someone’s painting or drawing, is the main difference between artworks and non-artworks, an art world or a real world.
Once we focus on composing the picture, the figurative or abstract levels becomes less important because they all have the same meaning as a constituent element of the picture.
I gave a brief description of my understanding of the “Picture Constitution” when I wrote the book "The Beauty of the Art of Landscape Photography" for China Photo Press three years ago. I also gave a lecture on the same topic at China Academy of Fine Arts in 2013. Fragments of the book are as follows:
"'Momentum' is divided into two: tangible and intangible. Contour and shading of the object will form a certain shape. If the centre-of-gravity of that shape is in the middle, there is no transverse momentum. If the centre- of -gravity shifts outwards, momentum will come into being. Moving objects with a positive dynamic can form strong dynamic lines."
"Light would 'irradiate' and the wind would 'blow.' They all have a positive dynamic, a kinetic energy and force, which can be visible or even touchable on the picture. The facing direction of a human body or face represents the travelling direction of attention, and one's eyesight is able to 'irradiate' to form a 'direction' or 'trend' just like light."
"From the upward movements of the trees and the upward postures of the figures, we can find the overall upper-left momentum, which can be compared to rising air streams or fireworks."
"When the static protagonist is surrounded by other dynamic characters, he or she would become more distinct as a focal point."
I painted my pictures, from unconsciously to consciously, paying attention to aspects of thought as well as skill levels. My consciousness has become stronger from time to time. "The Song of Spring" is lyrical while "In Buddhist Country", "A Sunshine Spring", "Water Festival" and "Lucy" demonstrate the certain meaningful exploration of painting techniques. My recent "Tree Series" is a new experiment of my own. My exploration is in present continuous tense and will never have a stop. This is the nature of creation that I am very fond of.
It is possible that I may return to some kind of unconscious state of being in the future, which is a new kind of freedom.