The Chinese painter Shen Fan is regarded a main representative of Shanghai's new avant-garde.
Shen Fan was born in Shanghai in 1952. He successfully completed his art studies at the Shanghai Light Industry Institute in 1986. Shanghai, his hometown, has always been Shen Fan's artistic center.
Beijing has long had to share the position as number one hotspot for the Chinese avant-garde with Shanghai: The city has recently become the center of a fast growing art scene that increasingly attracts an international audience. The dominating style in Shanghai greatly differs from China's mostly figuratively conceived contemporary art: Shanghai is the center of contemporary abstraction.
Among the artists of contemporary abstraction in Shanghai Shen Fan occupies one of the front ranks. His emblematic, linear picture language avoids figurative associations. For this sake the artist numbers his works - a precise title would tempt the observer to look for references between work and reality. Works by Shen Fan with their emphasis on calligraphic structures and their clear and yet almost spiritual aesthetic seem to stand in the tradition of East Asian visual art, at least for the eyes of European observers.
Next to paintings and works on paper, Shen Fan has recently been occupied with installations for which he uses neon illuminations.
Works by Shen Fan have long attained international popularity. The artist, who lived in the "Collection Studio" in Lincoln 2008, has had numerous solo shows all over the world, for instance in Bangkok (2005), London and Tübingen (2004) or New York (2002).
Shen Fan lives and works in Shanghai.