Former chef cooks up a solo painting exhibition
By Sophy Wang |
April 19, 2013, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A good chef is anxious to please the taste buds - and these days there's an emphasis on aesthetics and presentation - while a painter often tries to please the eyes and provoke thought.
Painter and ex-chef Zhou Wenfu excels at both.
Zhou's solo exhibition of recent abstract canvases and new ink-wash painting is underway at the Lake Meilaren International Art Gallery.
He began to learn painting when he was a child. "Even after I became a cook, I didn't give up painting," he says.
For 11 years Zhou worked as a chef. His signature dish was fried shrimp that won a top prize in a local cooking competition. "I don't see that cooking and art are two separate things," Zhou says. "For me, they are both a mixture of different ingredients. The knack is how to melt them together artistically."
But working in a kitchen every day can drain painterly creativity. In 1990, Zhou quit his job and set up the city's first children's artistic imagination center.
'Fervent agony'
His reason? "Today all kinds of examinations and tests have smothered the imagination of children in China. Just look at the businessmen or entrepreneurs around us today, how many of them can really appreciate art? I am an artist myself, and I am desperate to find an audience for art."
Zhou himself is a good example of breaking the shackles of convention. Whether on canvas or rice-paper he paints with passion.
One abstract on the first floor of the exhibition has a powerful impact, and viewers can almost hear what Zhou calls his "fervent agony."
His new ink-wash paintings on the second-floor are quite different. The black-and-white irregular brush strokes resonate in the spacious, almost desolate venue.
One series features pale circles of the same size. "Don't ask me too much about it, see if you can draw circles of the same size and color with a brush, freehand," Zhou says, adding that it took him two years to perfect.
"After hearing some church music, I would begin drawing at midnight when everything is emptied from my mind. It's my way of zen."
Date: Through April 22, 10am-4pm
Address: 68, Lane 555, Luofen Rd, Baoshan District
Painter and ex-chef Zhou Wenfu excels at both.
Zhou's solo exhibition of recent abstract canvases and new ink-wash painting is underway at the Lake Meilaren International Art Gallery.
He began to learn painting when he was a child. "Even after I became a cook, I didn't give up painting," he says.
For 11 years Zhou worked as a chef. His signature dish was fried shrimp that won a top prize in a local cooking competition. "I don't see that cooking and art are two separate things," Zhou says. "For me, they are both a mixture of different ingredients. The knack is how to melt them together artistically."
But working in a kitchen every day can drain painterly creativity. In 1990, Zhou quit his job and set up the city's first children's artistic imagination center.
'Fervent agony'
His reason? "Today all kinds of examinations and tests have smothered the imagination of children in China. Just look at the businessmen or entrepreneurs around us today, how many of them can really appreciate art? I am an artist myself, and I am desperate to find an audience for art."
Zhou himself is a good example of breaking the shackles of convention. Whether on canvas or rice-paper he paints with passion.
One abstract on the first floor of the exhibition has a powerful impact, and viewers can almost hear what Zhou calls his "fervent agony."
His new ink-wash paintings on the second-floor are quite different. The black-and-white irregular brush strokes resonate in the spacious, almost desolate venue.
One series features pale circles of the same size. "Don't ask me too much about it, see if you can draw circles of the same size and color with a brush, freehand," Zhou says, adding that it took him two years to perfect.
"After hearing some church music, I would begin drawing at midnight when everything is emptied from my mind. It's my way of zen."
Date: Through April 22, 10am-4pm
Address: 68, Lane 555, Luofen Rd, Baoshan District
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