The Cheryl McGinnis Gallery is excited to present new painting by Chinese artist Wei Jia.  Wei Jia is one of the few artists who reside in New York, yet keep a studio in Beijing.  The cross-cultural influences in his work are indeed based on living and working in two starkly different cultures.

Both Eastern and Western cultures, as well as art historical traditions not only influence Wei JIa’s work, but become the foundation of the paintings.

Each painting in this new series is named after a famous ancient calligrapher in Chinese history.  Each calligrapher has a unique style that has been influential for generations.  The characters on the painting reveal an aspect of the calligrapher.  The ancient calligrapher is an important aspect of each painting.  The artist chooses characters of each calligrapher randomly from calligraphy albums.  The beauty of its shapes and the structure of the character, especially the space that surrounds the characters are the focus of the work; rather than the content, which are not legible.

Wei Jia’s uses Xuan paper, from the Jing Village, China and applies an acid free glue as a means to create texture, layers and a translucent surface.  This labor-intensive process creates fragments of character that become more like symbols than meaning of words.  The artist paints on paper which is mounted on canvas with water-based color and tears off some parts, then paint and mount again many times.  He uses collage very much like other artists use pigment, to create color.

Wei Jia creates a new culture in his work, a cross-culture between East and West.  The paintings are the intersection of both cultures. The work examines both his ability and ours to travel between cultures.