OCEAN CITY — The Gallery at the Ocean City Arts Center will present artists Hai Wei and Yulin Huang during its March exhibit.
The show is set to open March 4 and run through March 30. A reception with the artists is scheduled for 7 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, March 8 on the second floor of the Ocean City Community Center at 1735 Simpson Ave.
Wei and Huang, a married couple, arrived in the United States in 2016 through visas for individuals with extraordinary ability in the arts. They settled in New York in 2018 and joined the Asian Artists Association, Overseas Chinese Artists Association and Hudson Artists Association. With distinctive styles, both have had work featured in the Independent Thinking Chinese and Western Contemporary Art Exchange Exhibition — New York State Capitol. They have also exhibited at the Gold Coast Art Center in Long Island, the Green Dot Gallery in Brooklyn, Artexpo New York, the Hudson Museum of History and many other galleries and art shows throughout the country.
Wei received an honorable mention as a first-time exhibitor at the Ocean City Arts Center’s Boardwalk Art Show last summer. They have exhibited in galleries throughout the world including in Beijing, Shanghai, Macau, Russia, France, Japan, Thailand, Spain and Korea, receiving much international acclaim.
As arts educators, they have taught art to students of all ages from primary through the university level.
Wei studied painting at Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in Tianjin. Huang graduated from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. In 2016, Wei was invited to attend the International Summit of Children’s Art Education in Beijing as an expert in children’s art education. At the invitation of the Ministry of Culture — China Foreign Culture Group Company, they have participated in many international children’s art exchanges. Huang prepared a Kindergarten Health Art Education Demonstration Course, which was published by People’s Education Publishing House. She is a featured artist in “Chinese Women’s Art 1949-2019.”
“I paint on canvas with oil and acrylic. Animals are my most favored theme. 10,000 years ago, human beings in childhood were already painting on the stone walls of caves, painting many animal images: bison, mammoths, lions, wild horses … In fact, animals preceded humans. Man comes from animals, and no matter how he develops, he will always be an animal,” Wei said in his artist’s statement. “The natural beauty that is inherent in every life, the dignity that is independent of us, fascinates me.
“I am always irrepressibly excited, striving to be vivid, as if always getting closer and closer to the beauty that can never be touched, prompting me to stand in front of the canvas and keep smearing, smearing directly, as if I am the primitive man facing the stone wall of the cave.”
“My paintings are done with acrylic paints and acrylic pens. I love abstract art, folk art, children’s art and decorative art, and I combine them in my own way. Finally, it expresses people’s best wishes for life: health, contentment, abundance and longevity,” Huang said in her statement.”
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