Kishwaukee College gallery hosts “Reconstructing Landscapes” in September

Posted 9/22/17

The Kishwaukee College Art Gallery will be hosting an exhibition of watercolors by artist Shei-Chau Wang, titled Reconstructing Landscapes. The show will run from Sept. 11 - 30.

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Kishwaukee College gallery hosts “Reconstructing Landscapes” in September

Posted

MALTA — The Kishwaukee College Art Gallery will be hosting an exhibition of watercolors by artist Shei-Chau Wang, titled Reconstructing Landscapes. The show will run from Sept. 11 - 30.
There will be an Artist’s Reception on Wednesday, Sept. 27, that will include a demonstration of Chinese Calligraphy and Ink Painting by Shei-Chau Wang from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. followed by a performance by the Northern Illinois University Chinese Music Ensemble at 3 p.m. in the Art Gallery. Hours for the Kishwaukee College Art Gallery for Fall 2017 are Mondays and Wednesday from 12:30 to 3:30p.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The gallery and artist’s reception are both free and open to the public.
Shei-Chau Wang is an Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design at Northern Illinois University. He is an Editorial Board Member for the International Journal of Education through Art. He has served as a Visiting Associate Professor with the Graduate Institute of Fine Arts at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan in Spring 2014 and as a Visiting Scholar in the College of Fine Arts, Fujien Normal University, Fuzhou, Chin, in summer 2010.  He holds an Ed.D. in Curriculum Leadership from NIU and an M.F.A. in Printmaking from NIU, an M.A. in Studio Art from Adelphi University in New York, and a B.F.A. in Studio Art from Chinese Culture University in Taipei, Taiwan. His works have been exhibited and are housed in public collections throughout the U.S. and Asia.

In Reconstructing Landscapes, Shei-Chau Wang combines Chinese art traditions with the Western medium of watercolor. “My watercolor landscape series illustrates a visual journey of my air travels. I always enjoy a window seat when travelling by airplane because I can see the “landscape” from the air. Looking out from the window, I am especially fond of the abstract shapes and the distorted forms I see from up high,” he explained. “Traditionally, Chinese artists seldom make art directly from their observation; rather, it is a recall process that requires an extensive memory of experience. The most important part of the painting always lies in the abstract forms or shapes that implicitly suggests what they thought about it. In this process, various types of brush strokes are used to symbolize both the artists’ actual visual memory and their existence or “being” in the art work. Influenced by this tradition, I attempted to create a landscape that I see as part of my journey. In my artwork, I did not particularly care about the content of the actual landscape, but instead, I focused more on the limited open space behind and beyond where it can possibly be defined as sky, cloud, water, and mostly air.”
Shei-Chau Wang’s Reconstruction Landscapes is presented in the Gallery installation in chronological order, documenting the development of his abstract landscape paintings. Selected sketches, small-scale watercolor studies, and photos of his ink paintings are also displayed to help Gallery visitors understand how he applies his knowledge of Chinese art and culture to his own work in a Western medium.
For more information on Reconstructing Landscapes, contact Jaime Long, Dean of Arts/Communications/Social Sciences at Kishwaukee College, at jlong@kish.edu or at 815-825-9532.