Shen Fan
Shen Fan’s artistic production consists primarily of two-dimensional abstract painting. These images portray the minimalism of Western abstract painting, but are fundamentally different. The Chinese version and approach has been coined with the term Maximalism. This practice attempts to establish a balance between the spiritual and the material components of the process. Shen Fan’s work can be regarded as incomplete and fragmented records of daily meditation: he repeats the same patterns and forms in order to remove individualism or eliminate any desire for self-expression, aiming for the distillation of pure spirituality. This serialization and monotonous process constitute the characteristics of Shen Fan’s Maximalism.

Shen Fan’s paintings come across as visually pure and harmonious compositions devoid of any extravagant or superfluous elements. For Shen Fan, the surface of the canvas becomes a field where color plays a key role. His images consist of monochromatic (and often primary) colors. His works are tactile compositions created using a palette knife, which makes for a restrictive work structure. The result is an ambiguous space in which shapes resembling geometric diagrams are then filled out with beautifully simple and repetitious ornamental figures. With rare radicalism, Shen Fan always accomplishes compositions full of discipline, rigor and perfection. Shen Fan disregards representation or narrative. He instead emphasizes the pure, clear expressive methodology of the process of production and its serialization. Shen Fan therefore creates a self-referential, or perhaps ‘pure’ world that follows an inner logic. Silence becomes a powerful concept that addresses the intimacy between the artist’s mind and material society.

Shen Fan was born in 1952 in Jangyin, Jiangsu province. He graduated from Shanghai Light Industry Institute, Fine Arts Department in 1986. He resides and works in Shanghai. Selected exhibitions include HyperDesign, Shanghai Biennale 2006, Shanghai Art Museum (2006), Chinese Maximalism, Millenium Art Museum (Beijing, 2003), The Paintings of Shen Fan – Pioneering Abstraction from Shanghai, Goedhuis Contemporary (New York, 2002), Shanghai Abstract Art Group Show, Liu Haisu Art Museum, (Shanghai, 2002), Metaphysics 2001, Shanghai Art Museum (2002) and Shen Fan – New Works, ShanghART Gallery (Shanghai, 2001).