This new series breaks open his obsession with the forest and we feel that he is driven towards abstraction with new vibrant and vivid palettes that explode into “Fire Rainbows,” which is an actual unique alignment of forces in the atmosphere. Technically called a circumhorizontal arc, fire rainbows are caused by light passing through wispy, high-altitude cirrus clouds.

PAN JIAN
b. 1975, Shandong, China. Lives and works in Beijing and Xi’an, China.
Pan Jian is a thoughtful and committed painter. In his exploration of shadow, the artist distills the relationship between light and dark to its purest form, resulting in an arresting body of work that challenges the viewer’s eyes to adjust to the dim silhouettes and wander through the monochromatic nighttime scenes. Pan Jian’s artistic process first draws inspiration from actual landscapes, gradually transforming what he has seen into the imagined scenes that he presents on each canvas. The landscapes are therefore both real and imagined, a dichotomy that is reflected in the concept that although a shadow has no tangible content, the image presented is still able to move the viewer, provoking an emotional response. Pan Jian graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Xi’an Academy of Fine Art where he is now a teacher. He recently had a major exhibition at the Himalaya Museum in Shanghai.