Zhang Wei Guang

Still Life with Apples - Oil on Canvas by Zhang Wei Guang (Mirror) - 2000

2000s

Zhang Wei Guang, also called "Mirror," was born in Heilongjiang, China, in 1968. He studied at the Harbin Teacher University and at the Ruxin Art University. He exhibited his first solo shows in 1995 in Heilongjiang province. His first international solo show was in Boston in 2000. Having conducted deep formative research about the chromatism of the oil painting technique, he interprets the objects of the tradition through a "photographic" pictorial yield. His works are often still-life representations, like scenographic sets of flowers, painted potsherds and glass bowls, and fruits. 

Guang’s small- and medium-sized canvases show daily life objects, resting on tables of modern houses. The choice of diffused and soft lights, with delicate and bright chromatic solutions, provides an atmosphere of silent and intimate harmony. In continuing the guóhuà Chinese tradition of the representation of landscape and the typical sino-intimateness of the pictorial floral decorations, his works celebrate the beauty of his culture. The art of composing is another typical element of the Chinese esthetic heritage that Mirror, as shown by his artistic name, knows well and recreates on canvas. The choice of still-life painting subjects lets him perform poetical research about the relations between the forms of daily life objects and their evocative color tones.