CYNTHIA-REEVES Presents SHEN CHEN: NEW PAINTINGS at IAP

In his paintings, the artist's meticulous layering of color achieves resonant tonal hues, and manifests a rigorous grounding in a meditation on breath. To create his subtle ombré surfaces, Chen works with the canvas on the studio floor. He layers the paint in precisely calibrated vertical brushstrokes; the discrete horizontal lines visible on the surface are a record of where each brushstroke - and attendant breath - begins. Of this latest work -- and Chen's studio practice in general -- art critic Robert Morgan, who has studied Chen's work for a decade, writes in the artist's catalogue:

In contrast to other important Chinese artists living or who have lived in New York, Chen functions solely as a painter. He is very clear about his position. He is committed to painting as a form that gives him the space and time to do what he wants and to express what he needs (without necessarily being expressive). For Shen Chen, there is no reason to take photographs or to make installations. He has no incentive to perform or participate in media-driven spectacles that, in recent years, have seduced so many artists. He is a painter, specifically an abstract painter, intent on working with the surface, using acrylic paint the way he was trained to use ink. -- Robert Morgan, "Paintings in Memory of Time and Infinity", 2014.