Fan Fan and Li Xi: Artists in ink and life

From Left: Artists Li Xi, Fan Fan, and local photographer Tom Peterson posed for a group photo at the opening reception of the exhibition Moving Moments at Silk Road Art Gallery in New Haven on July 25. The exhibition runs from July 25 to Aug 27. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

This is the second time artists Fan Fan and Li Xi, and their 11-year-old daughter Fan Miao, have visited the US. Last year, they did a road trip along the East Coast, immersing themselves in art and landscapes and taking home beautiful memories of Western culture.

This trip to America, the couple has brought along their rendition of Chinese culture — a collection of more than 30 of their recent paintings, currently showing at the Silk Road Art Gallery in New Haven.

Fan Fan is a nationally recognized landscape designer and on the faculty of the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts. Li Xi is the deputy director of the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts Museum and an assistant professor at the academy.

“Both of us actually have two jobs,” said Fan Fan. “First is our profession — I teach and work on landscapes and Li Xi studies and teaches Chinese textile design. Second is painting.”

The two paint every day at their own times, and it has become a wonderful habit.

Their exhibition, entitled Moving Moments, features Fan Fan’s ink wash paintings and Li Xi’s Chinese Meticulous paintings. “It is a collection of artwork based in memory and captures the ephemeral qualities of subjects in transition,” said gallery curator and owner Ma Liwen.

With ink on rice paper, Fan Fan recalls objects and landscapes of his ancestral home in Xi’an before the effects of the “cultural revolution” (1966-76) — traditional Chinese cultural experiences like a carved stone lion, a doorway of an old dwelling, a tea kettle warming over a fire or the small valleys between people’s homes.

“These are my childhood memories,” said Fan. “Everyone’s upbringing is so important to their life. We still like to eat what we often ate as a child.”

As a landscape designer, he loves what nature and especially the ground offer. To him, painting a stone lion is like capturing a piece of the earth.

His painting style is graphic and he intentionally creates imagery somewhere between graffiti, realism and impressionism. The combination of styles evokes clouds of memory by going in and out of focus. Fan believes the impression is profound chaos. His fluid ink creates simple and misty imagery, the drips and washes suggesting an emotional outpouring surging from the heart.

Fan Fan explains his artwork to visitors at the opening reception of the exhibition Moving Moments at Silk Road Art Gallery in New Haven on July 25, 2015.

In contrast, Li Xi’s expertise is in meticulous painting, another traditional Chinese technique. Her works in the show focus on Eastern symbols of purity.

“There are moments I see a new interpretation of life,” she said. “Like the withered seed pod of a lotus. The vein is dead, but the roots are alive. I see reincarnation through that, and I show it through my strokes.”

Her other subjects include apple blossoms and representations of the Bodhisattva. The paintings of the flowers capture the transition from a full bloom to the first sign of seasonal deterioration, each work keyed in to the moment when a flower loses a petal or begins its slow decent back to its origin, recycling its energy for future generations.

The Bodhisattvas offer their selflessness the same way the plants do, through calm reflection.

“China has been changing really fast in the past decade and a lot of us are very nostalgic,” said gallery owner Ma. “That’s why I like Fan Fan’s work. It’s a dream of the past.”

“Li Xi’s work is so pure and holy. While it’s very quiet, you can feel how strong her emotions are. It’s her feelings that touch the audience,” Ma added.

The artists were joined at the show’s opening reception on July 25 by Andrew Wolf, New Haven’s chief director of arts, culture and tourism, Tony Ma, a representative from Yale’s Asian Network, and local artists including Liz Pagano, Corina S. Alvarezdelugo and Roy Money.

“Everyone is so passionate and earnest,” Li Xi said of visitors’ reactions. “I was almost embarrassed when artists asked me questions like a student asking their teacher — the composition, the style. They are really curious and interested, that moved me.”

As a second job, painting has brought the couple a lot of pleasure. “Working on a landscape design is a group project with a lot of people and details involved,” said Fan. “When I paint a landscape, I can truly relax, and immerse myself in my emotions.”

Dr. Li Xi and Andrew Wolf, New Haven’s chief director of Arts, Culture and Tourism, pose for a photo next to Li's artwork at the opening reception of the exhibition Moving Moments at Silk Road Art Gallery in New Haven on July 25, 2015. Provided to China Daily

Fan said his passion for art goes back to his childhood. “I was always the designer for our classroom boards in elementary school. I could carve a stone for hours while other kids went out to play,” he said.

Li Xi was from an artistic family, taught by the best artists in Xi’an since she was six. She and Fan met in high school and fell in love, becoming each other’s best supporters and critics.

“After being together for more than 20 years…” Fan said.

“We are almost one person,” Li said, finishing his sentence.

“Almost one person,” he agreed. Not only do they finish each other’s sentences, they often say the same words together.

“But we are independent artists,” they both emphasized. “We never interrupt each other’s creative process, but only critique the works afterward.”

hezijiang@chinadailyusa.com