Shanghai Show for Tu Zhiwei

The new Liu Hai Su Art Museum will be staging a one-man show of Chinese-American oil painter Tu Zhiwei's works January 6-16, 2008. Get the details here as they become available.

OPA Midwest Regional

Zhiwei Tu has an entry in the Midwestern Regional Exhibition of the Oil Painters of America, which runs from September 30 to November 30. A photo of his painting (see above) and a link to the Topeka, Kansas, gallery hosting the event can be found on the Tu Art Gallery web site.

Informal photos of the August opening of his one-man show at the Andreeva Gallery in Santa Fe also can be viewed here. It's fun to see Mr. Tu's talented wife, who made an impromptu appearance with the strong quartet hired for the event.

Santa Fe One-Man Show

We've mentioned before that Santa Fe's Andreeva Portrait Gallery is currently sponsoring a one-man exhibition of works by Zhiwei Tu. The latest issue of Art of the West carries a full page ad promoting the show. Click the image above for a closeup view.

Taos Art Auction

Tonight, collectors of oil paintings by Zhiwei Tu will have an opportunity to buy one of his more recent oil paintings, shown above, at the "3rd Annual Gala Auction" in Taos, N.M. Possibly for a song (pardon the pun). Certainly for a good cause.

Click here for a preview of all the art works and crafts up for auction. Apparently, telephone bids may be accepted:

If you are interested in placing a bid or would like more information on an item, please call 505.758.2690 x 5.

The auction will benefit the Taos Art Museum and Fechin House, located in the former home of Russian emigré artist Nicolai Fechin. (1881-1955). Fechin is said to have designed and hand-carved many of the features of the house, which was finished in 1933.

Zhiwei Tu's China Live Webcast

Look what just popped up on the Internet: a one hour on-line video of a live webcast with Zhiwei Tu, produced by Tom.com this past June.

One hour!!

The event was held in connection with Mr. Tu's one-man show at the National Art Museum of China. Tom.com is a "mobile internet company" specializing in web-casting (as opposed to more traditional "broadcasting") to a wide audience throughout China.

The program, naturally, is in Chinese. Just as happens with regular TV, a studio host interviewed Mr. Tu about the NAMOC show, his early years in a remote farming village when he was discovered to be a prodigy at painting, and his move to the U.S.A. to further his art education. What's so different with this "webcast" is that there was ample time to explore additional subjects and take live questions from viewers, apparently sent in by email or text-messaging.

Among the many subjects covered are the differences between art education in China and the U.S., the practicalities of how newly arrived Chinese artists can get by in the West, the inspiration Mr. Tu drew from his artistic mentor in the U.S., etc. etc. Several viewers apparently wanted to know more about the Oil Painters of America, a relatively new but very effective organization of artists (with affiliates in Canada and Mexico) that has helped to introduce the art work of many domestic and newly-arrived foreign artists to a Western audience.

Shorter excerpts of the interview can be viewed on the Tu Zhiwei Art Gallery web site here. For non-Chinese speakers, English summaries are provided.

Of the excerpts available, our favorite is "The Artistic Passion of Tu Zhiwei: Ten Epic Murals in Ten Years." It runs a little over six minutes. In this segment, Mr. Tu discloses that the five giant murals he's completed are just half of the ten he plans to do before "I rest in peace." One of them, he explains, is about Confucious.

Take a look at the first five murals and you can see why so many people are excited at what is yet to come from this extraordinary artistic genius.

Santa Fe Exhibition Opens

Today is the opening for Zhiwei Tu's exhibition at the Andreeva Gallery in Santa Fe, N.M.

The gallery's on-line display includes thirteen portraits from his Ballerina and Tibet portrait series. One of them is pictured above: "Dancer Reading."

The latest Art of the West issue includes a full page ad for Zhiwei Tu's upcoming one-man show at Andreeva Gallery i n Taos, N.M. The show begins August 16-Sept. 20, 2007.

More info coming soon.