The 2013 LA Art Show presents a special exhibition-China: FUSION- organized by China’s National Base for International Culture Trade, under the commission and guidance of the China Ministry of Culture and Shanghai Municipal Culture Radio and Television Bureau. China: FUSION showcases emerging artists from China and highlights the artists’ fusion of Eastern and Western culture through content and form.

The 3,600 square feet of exhibition space will be designed as a traditional Chinese style “9-Couleurs,” with the main exhibition area highlighting Chinese artists who were cutting-edge between the 1940s and the 1980s. Flanking this area are eight contemporary art galleries from Beijing and Shanghai, each featuring some of China’s top artists, with a total of over 100 pieces of artwork.

For decades, Chinese artists have been striving for a conscious blending of Chinese and Western art. In the 1920s, Lin Fengmian became a frontline pioneer of this endeavor and advocated for a synthesis of the traits in Chinese and Western art. Lin claimed to have been the first to incorporate Western art concepts into Chinese artistic expression.

This exhibition’s theme is FUSION. Apart from being an endeavor to share creative contemporary artistic expression and lifestyle through a now fearless exchange between Chinese and Western traditions and culture, the exhibition pays special attention to the interpretation of Western and Eastern art.

Works were selected from Chinese artists in different age groups in order to cast a spotlight on the relationship between traditional Chinese culture and contemporary art and lifestyle in Western and Eastern worlds in the 40-year-span between 1940 and 1980. With a strong impact on artistic creation, traditional cultural influences are fused seamlessly into inspiring artistic explorations to form the contemporary artistic expression of today.

Liu Yi, an artist, graduated from the Beijing Film Academy after finishing his secondary high school study in the Middle School a9liated with the China Academy of Art. He has been awarded several times for his contributions to art direction in several box-o9ce blockbuster films like The Red Detachment of Women, Xiao Hua, Miao Miao, and Sunset Street. In 1989, Liu Yi and his wife settled in Australia. He became deeply involved in this foreign environment with a completely diRerent cultural background which oRered him new insights into the understanding of artistic expression. Attempting to blend into local life, he adopted an intriguing approach of incorporating Chinese painting techniques and colors into his works to express his views and emotions. The painting Luoti Xieyi was created after he arrived in Australia.

born in 1942, became a student of Wu Guanzhong, who is perhaps the best-known contemporary Chinese painter in the world, at the age of 16 and was influenced by his teacher’s creation style. He developed a solid understanding of Western modernist painting characteristics and theories, and allowed new art concepts derived from the application of point, line and plane, color composition and comparison, and the composition of repetition and variety to dominate his work. The bold use of black and white, and rich, strong colors are commonly found in Li Fuyuan’s paintings. To ensure the quality of the colors, he never mixed them with black ink, but preferred to put heavy black ink against bright colors to create contrast, allowing them to support, embrace, and complement each other. Li is in pursuit of simplicity, honesty, and strong emotional response via his work. Several of his paintings were auctioned at Sotheby’s Hong Kong.

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