Zhong Chen

Born 1969, Zhongshan, Peoples Republic of China

Zhong Chen's deft renderings of landscape from the southern Flinders Ranges would by themselves demonstrate his grasp of Australian cultural issues. An emigrant from Zhongshan, China, Chen has claimed a view long colonized by the European, yet unremarked by oriental eyes.

That this might seem exotic would ignore the preponderance of landscape in traditional Chinese art and, more poignantly, the long history of emigration by Chinese people to the Australian bush.

By placing himself iconographically against this laden background, Chen lifts his subject matter to a social commentary on isolation and difference. Parodically laughing the Chinaman's mute, stock–in–trade smile, he becomes an exemplar of cultural ambiguity and camouflage.

Ross Wolfe from the 1997 Samstag catalogue, Elephant Poo
 
1997 Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship
1997 MA in Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London
1996 Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours), South Australian School of Art, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
1994 Diploma of Visual Arts, North Adelaide School of Art, Adelaide
1989 Arrived Australia
1988 Graphic Design, Beijing Central Commercial Art College, Peoples Republic of China 
1986 Free Brush Mark Painting, Zhongshan Visual Arts Centre, Peoples Republic of China