Mian Situ

Oaks in Tejon Ranch

2023

Biography Mian Situ (Born 1953) Winner of the Best of Show in 1995 at the Oil Painters of America, Mian Situ made his art debut in the United States at that time. He is Chinese born and having traveled extensively in that country, he creates impressionist paintings that focus on depicting the everyday life of the people he knows. Situ studied at the Guangzhou Institute of Fine Arts where he had basic academic training. However, during the Cultural Revolution in the mid 1980s, he was ordered to work as a film projectionist for propaganda films. Later he returned to the Institute to graduate. He wanted to study art in America and arrived in Los Angeles in 1987. He worked in a commercial gallery where he copied European paintings for 75 dollars per painting. Born in Southern China, Mian Situ's received his formal art training in his native homeland of Guangdong, formerly Canton. During his schooling, he experimented with various artistic styles such as impressionism, post-impressionism and expressionism. He was also deeply influenced by the 19th Century European Academic Realism that traveled to Russia and was eventually imported to China. His academic training is a result of western influences that were prevalent during the Cultural Revolution, and available only to talented young Chinese. After teaching at the institute for six years, Situ moved to Canada where he became a citizen and lived for ten years before reaching the United States. Situ's paintings clearly reflect his upbringing in the rural countryside of his native China. His deep-toned impressionistic paintings of the backcountry often focus on people going about their daily lives in their small villages and farming communities. Despite leaving China in 1987, the rural countryside life of his youth is one that is still deeply rooted within him. Situ's paintings often combine elements of the young and old, which he sees as symbolic of the passage of time. He endeavors to capture the dignity and quiet beauty of the traditional way of life and dress that is eminently disappearing. Situ's artistic versatility is also evident in his exquisite portraiture, as well as his more recent works inspired by western historical themes and American landscapes. • BFA, MFA, Guangzhou Institute of Fine Arts, China Selected Group Exhibitions • National Museum of Wildlife Art, Western Visions, Jackson, WY, 2014 • Trailside Galleries, East Meets West, Scottsdale, AZ, 2006-2014 • Autry National Center, Masters of the American West, Los Angeles, CA, 2001-2014 Selected Publications • Trailside Galleries, Mian Situ-Colors of the Shaoshu Minzu, April 2013 Selected Press • Western Art Collector, March, 2013 • Southwest Art, May, 2012 • Art of the West, January/February 2011 • Western Art Collector, December, 2010 • Southwest Art, December, 2009 • Art of the West, May/June, 2007 • Fine Art Connoisseur, January, 2006 • American Art Collector, September, 2006 • Art of the West, April, 2005 • Western Art Collector, October, 2007 • Western Art & Architecture, Fall/Winter, 2008 Affiliations • California Art Club- • Oil Painters of America-Signature Member Selected Collections • Autry National Center, Los Angeles, CA Awards See Bio in description for many more awards.