Far From a Shining Star...: Famous Chinese Artist

Wenzhi Zhang, one of the most acclaimed ~~female~~ artists in China will be teaching four ART classes at Lake Superior College this spring. Wenzhi (pronounced Wen-gee) will be teaching two ceramics classes and two sculpture courses in the semester that starts Wednesday, January 17.

I had the pleasure of spending some quality time with Wenzhi during our five day visit to the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GAFA). Here are links to several previous blog posts about this trip: One, Two, Three, Four. Wenzhi also taught at LSC during the spring semester of 2005. This is a photo from our October trip where she is presenting her American visitors with beautiful ceramic tea sets. The picture at right was taken outside one of her ceramics shops in Foshan. All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Wenzhi is an amazing ceramics artist. She has a tremendous ceramics empire in Foshan that we had the pleasure of touring on our final full day in China. This picture is of Professor Wenzhi Zhang in front of the ceramic mural that she created for the Ceramics Museum in Foshan. A great deal of her artwork is on display at the museum, including many things created for the sole purpose of demonstrating some of the artistic techniques of Chinese artists from many centuries ago.

This photo shows a close-up of the ceramic tiles that cover several walls in the courtyard outside of the museum. Each large tile was hand made by Wenzhi and comprise a truly amazing work of art. She worked almost nonstop for over a year making all of the tiles for the mural. It truly is an amazing sight to behold.

The last photo was taken in front of one of the kilns at the new GAFA campus on the Higher Education Mega Center island in Guangzhou. GAFA is one of ten universities on the island. Their new kilns were modeled after the kilns at Lake Superior College.

For a truly international learning experience, please consider enrolling in one of Wenzhi's courses this semester: