An Evening with Quanzhou Jack Zhao: Live Painting Demonstration

Artist Jack Zhao brings Chinese literati painting to life in a live ink and calligraphy demo previewing ACM's upcoming exhibition.
About this Event

Join us for an extraordinary live painting demonstration with artist Quanzhou (Jack) Zhao, whose large-scale calligraphy and ink painting performance, Pine and Rock and Bamboo and Rock, offers a rare window into the world of Chinese literati art. In traditional Chinese culture, literati painting (wenrenhua) and scholar's rocks (gongshi) together formed the spiritual landscape of the scholarly mind — a way of "traveling the world while lying indoors" and pouring inner emotion into outward form. Unusual stones, prized for their slenderness, openness, and wrinkling, were used to embody the peaks and valleys of the imagination, while brush and ink captured the untamed, lofty spirit within the artist's heart. Central to this tradition are the pine, bamboo, and plum blossom — the "Three Friends of Winter" — whose resilience and integrity made them enduring symbols of moral character and self-cultivation. Zhao brings this centuries-old tradition into vital contemporary conversation: deeply rooted in classical Chinese brushwork, he also draws boldly from Western movements including Post-Impressionism and Cubism, creating work that is at once ancient and strikingly modern. His demonstration previews a painting destined for ACM's upcoming Scholar's Rocks exhibition, and promises an evening of artistic depth, cultural richness, and living creative process.