Shanghai-born contemporary artist Wang Tiande is famous for his Digital (Hou Shan) series, where he paints traditional landscapes and calligraphy on layered xuan paper that’s been enhanced by burn formations — a style that he discovered when he accidentally dropped cigarette ash onto a painting he was working on. For future works, however, Wang started using burning incense instead of cigarettes. This signature deconstruction style involves two layers of paper – the bottom xuan features traditional ink painting while the top is a finer fibre paper with burn marks. The overlapping effect imparts a visual and conceptual dimension to his work.
He also experimented with other unconventional techniques, such as planting new grass or having sheep eat grass to form Chinese characters.
Wang is now dean and professor at the Department of Art and Design of Shanghai’s Fudan University. He’s had numerous solo and group exhibitions at major galleries and museums, including Alisan Fine Art in Hong Kong, The Palace Museum in Fujian and Beijing, Today Art Museum and The National Art Museum of China in Beijing and Chambers Fine Art in New York. His work is in the collections of, to name a few, The British Museum in London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Shanghai Museum of Art.
