Dong
Wen Jie
Dong Wen Jie (Angel) was born in Baishan, China, in 1970
to a Chinese father (railroad worker) and a Manchurian mother (teacher).
From an early age, Angel was recognized as having a remarkable talent
for painting and started her formal art training at the age of fourteen
when she was sent to Shandong province in Eastern China to live and study
with her father’s artist brother.
As an apprentice in her uncle’s studio, Angel was immersed in an
apprentice-mentor relationship more typical of the European Renaissance
than of the modern art school. For four years, Angel was trained in depth
in the classic school, and the importance of each incremental stroke.
For the first 2 years of her training, Angel did nothing but copy old
master paintings, and painted and repainted details of light and form
following an age-old tradition. At the age of 17, Angel was finally allowed
to paint from live models, and her work won a number of youth competitions
in Shandong Province, and, importantly a scholarship to study art at the
prestigious Xian Art Academy.
While in the ancient Chinese capital of Xian, Angel slowly developed her
own figurative style, borrowing from the aesthetic of the elegance of
historical court-life in the Qing Dynasty. Upon graduation, Angel began
her life long collaboration with Xie Qiu Wa – now her husband, and
has slowly become recognized as one of the leading lights of China’s
Neo-Realist movement. In recent years, Angel has had two-man exhibitions
(together with Xie) in Portland, Calgary, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and
is currently one of the best known Asian painters in North America.
Angel paints with a passion and modesty that is uniquely Asian, and she
strives to capture the veiled looks that communicate much meaning. “The
ideas and spirituality that lie at the core of traditional Asian culture
are important to my work. I want to explore the unsaid rather than the
said. I want to paint an oasis of reflection and celebrate the small joys
of life. In particular, I want to capture the warm but quiet feeling of
anticipation.” It is with this gentle purpose that she hopes to
reintroduce through her paintings an Asian tradition of philosophy and
beauty that has gone neglected, if not forgotten, over the last half century
in China.