Born in Beijing where he currently resides in 1954. Trained at Central Art and Craft Academy in Beijing.
Like Li Huayi, Zeng Xiaojun was drawn to the writhing, primordial forms of Chen Rong’s Nine Dragons. Zeng has reimagined the dragons in his new painting as aged, gnarled cypress trees, a favored subject of Zeng’s for many decades.
Zeng is also an authority on classical Chinese furniture. He is particularly interested in how scholar-artists of the late Ming dynasty became actively involved in fashioning their material environments. For this project, Zeng plays this role himself, having designed and commissioned a sumptuous folding screen to accommodate his paintings. On one side of the screen, dragons are carved and lacquered into the wood panels, while the other side of the screen holds Zeng’s paintings of twisting cypress trees.
Section of Nine Trees, ink on paper, 2009
Front of Zitan wood screen, 2009
Detail from Zitan wood screen
Section of Chen Rong (active 13th century), Nine Dragons, ink and traces of red on paper, dated 1244
