Yuan ZUO
Yuan Zuo is an abstract painter who examines the relationships between color, light and form, as informed by his advocacy for traditional Chinese modes of rendering space, emphasis on material, and references to historically Chinese aesthetics. Yuan has additionally realized several collaborative public art projects in the United States and China. He studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing before earning both his BFA and MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at 798 Art Bridge Gallery, Beijing (2014; 2015), Permanence Gallery, Beijing (2013). Recent group exhibitions include: “Abstract +/ The New Possibility of Abstract Painting in China,” Yuan Art Museum, Chongqing, “Beijing Abstract,” Parkview Fine Art Gallery, Hong Kong (both 2018), “Draw/Boston,” Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston (2017), “Beyond Form,” Epoch Art Museum, Wenzhou (2015), “Draw: Mapping Madness,” Inside-Out-Art Museum, Beijing (2014).
For the last thirty some years, Yuan Zuo has taught in Boston and Beijing, keenly working to implement a globally-minded approach to arts education. In the Fall of 2008, Yuan began teaching as an Associate Professor of Art in Tsinghua University’s Academy of Arts and Design where in 2009 he was named the Deputy Director of the Visual Arts Center and Vice Chair of the Foundation Department. In his academic work, Yuan actively focuses his efforts on developing the structure and role of foundation studies at the undergraduate and graduate levels in China. He has also previously served as the Director of the Inside-Out-Art Museum in Beijing. Currently, Yuan is the Deputy Director of the Artist’s Association of the Western Returned Scholars Association in Beijing, as well as a Guest PhD Program Advisor in Fine Arts at Macau University of Science and Technology. Yuan Zuo lives and works in Boston and Beijing.