A new wave of fashionable contemporary art has exploded onto the Chinese arts scene. Su Xinping is at the forefront of that movement. A printmaker by trade, he also produces oil paintings, which typically sell for 10 times the price of a print.
Su Xinping is at the forefront of that movement. A printmaker by trade, he also produces oil paintings, which typically sell for 10 times the price of a print.
Tucked away in a corner of the Dongbianmen watch tower in Beijing is the Red Gate Gallery, transformed by Australian Brian Wallace.
Wallace first came to China in 1986 and soon found himself organizing exhibitions for young Chinese artists.
Brian Wallace, director of Red Gate Gallery, said, "The art scene has developed from virtually nothing 20 years ago to growing quite strongly in many different directions. There is a booming art market for contemporary Chinese art and many artists are participating in that for the first time."
One of the most famous artists on display is Su Xinping.
Born in Jining, Inner Mongolia, in 1960, Su served in the army for two years before graduating from the Tianjin Institute of Fine Arts. He then got a masters degree in printmaking from Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts, or CAFA.
Su first became known for his stone prints, or lithographs - a process which can take up to a month depending on the complexity of the picture. Typically, he produces 20 numbered prints of each of his works.
Several of Su's contemporaries at CAFA are also leading printmakers in China, but he says they were extremely careful as they developed together not to influence each other's style.
