Zeng Xiaojun graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1981. He moved to the United States in 1983 and lived for the next fourteen years in Boston, where he exhibited and taught until 1997. Drawing inspiration from the literati landscape painting tradition, especially works by Shen Zhou (1427–1509) and Wen Zhengming (1470–1559) of the Ming period, Zeng extracts rocks and trees from the context of landscape and depicts them as isolated objects. Employing a delicate balance between dry and wet, lines and dots, his meticulously executed paintings remind us of the Chinese intellectuals’ fascination with these subjects as embodiments of their own spiritual perseverance in times of difficulty and turbulence. Together the work of Liu Dan, Zeng Xiaojun’s ink paintings are a powerful example of how the high culture of traditional China can be reinvigorated for contemporary society.
