Ban Xuejian 班学俭

From ArtSpeak China (ASC) Wiki

Born in 1963 in the Ningxia Province, Ban is a contemporary Chinese artist who works with mixed media.  He has created several sculptures of different breeds of mating dogs, reminding the viewer of the basic and natural instincts of animals, and commenting on the inter-mingling of East and West in modern China.  Through somewhat comical and crude expressions, Ban reminds audiences how detached they have become from their own natural animal instincts in a society dominated by economics.

Contents 1 Date and Place of Birth 2 Education & Development 3 Art 4 Exhibitions 5 External Sites 6 Interviews

[edit] Date and Place of Birth

Ban was born in 1963 in the Ningxia Province of China.

[edit] Education & Development

Ban graduated from the Fine Arts Department of the Central Nationality University, also known as Minzu University of China, in Beijing in 1988.

[edit] Art

Ban Xuejian works with various mediums to create his fine artwork. His exhibited works have included sculptures, oil paintings, and fiberglass objects, among other things. In 2008, Ban created several bright red dog statues in various positions.  Among his most notable is a sculpture of four dogs mating, reminding the audience of animal's natural and basic instinct of procreation. Breeding is natural of all living things but is generally a hushed and avoided subject in society today due to "modesty." This series, therefore, aims to remind us how far humans have detached themselves from their instinctual nature in a society dominated by commerce and power.

Ban is most well known for his Karaoke Series, mainly oil on canvas works depicting men singing in China's notorious karaoke clubs, usually in the company of a female employee paid to offer companionship to the club's clientele.  Ban's images are critical but with an ever-present air of pathos, presenting the social consequences of light-speed industrialization and metropolitan isolation through the prism of an ever wider-spread social pass-time--the karaoke bar.  Men once firmly rooted somewhere along the well-defined track from birth through married life and agricultural endeavor to old age in the homes of their children now find themselves newly rich in a suddenly urban and urbane China but in some cases, isolated and longing for partnership and purpose.

[edit] Exhibitions

Ban has shown his work nationally since 1987 when he participated in a group exhibition titled Artworks by Young Artists in Beijing.  He made his international debut in 1991 at the Elegant China Taiwan exhibition in Japan.  Recently, his sculpture "Dog in Chains, No. 5," sold at Christie's in Amsterdam.  For Ban Xuejian's full CV, please click here.

[edit] External Sites

http://www.vipsart.nl/on_location.html

[1]http://www.sunjingalleries.com.sg/Ban_Xuejian.html

http://www.artnet.com/Artists/LotDetailPage.aspx?lot_id=DF766DC755A859D07AFD3E6BB382CFE5

[edit] Interviews 

Studio Door China has a video interview with Ban Xuejian in his studio in Beijing. Click here to watch.