Zhiyuan Cong is a world-renowned printmaker and Chinese ink painter who’s art bridges the gap between eastern and western cultures.
ZHIYUAN CONG
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Zhiyuan Cong earned a BFA in 1980 and an MFA in Chinese painting from Nanjing Arts Institute in 1986, and an MFA in printmaking from Indiana University in 1994. He is currently professor and head of the Printmaking Program as well as director of the Center for Chinese Art at William Paterson University. Cong also serves as chair of Board of trustees, the Chinese-American Art Faculty Association, and Academic Committee Chairman of New York Art Gallery of Chinese Art. His prior positions include consultant to the Indianapolis Museum of Art and Qinghai Province Museum, and professor of Nanjing Arts Institute.
Cong’s exhibitions have ranged from local galleries to national and international museums. He has held more than 30 solo exhibitions and over hundred group exhibitions, including those at the National Museum of China, Beijing, the United Nations, New York, and the Olympic Fine Arts Exhibition 2012, London; the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN; The Butler Institute of America Art, Youngstown, OH; 1974, 84, 85, 86, 2005, 2016 China National Art Exhibition in National Art Museum of China, Beijing. His art works have been collected by the National Museum of China, the National Art Museum of China, Nanjing Museum of Art, American International Group, Inc., and many other museums and companies.
Cong’s publications include four Art books, eleven catalogues, refereed articles in professional arts journals, including Fine Arts, National Art Museum of China, Beijing China; Oriental Art, London; Orientations, Hong Kong; Zhiyuan Cong: An Admirable Art Ambassador, Macau; Imprint of Times: Blue Film Etching, Taipei. He has also received numerous major media reports and reviews for his art works and achievements, including The New York Times, The Star-Ledger, World Journal, the China Press, People’s Daily, NJN, BBC, CNN and CCTV4.
Since 1988, Cong has given hundreds of lectures and demonstrations at art museums and universities around the country, such as the Chicago Art Institute, Princeton University, U.C. Berkeley, Indianapolis Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Youngstown State University, Ontario College of Art and Design in Canada, and Taipei National Arts University.
As an ardent supporter of promoting Chinese culture and arts in America, Cong has consulted and directed several art exhibitions and projects including: Soul of the Han: An Exhibition of Han Carved Stone Rubbing from Tengzhou, China, 2017; Ink Painting from the East: An Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings and Symposium, New York Art Gallery, 2017; Perception and Vision: Chinese-American Art Faculty Exhibition and Symposium, 2016 Guizhou Minzu University, China；A Gathering: Chinese Contemporary Printmaking Exhibition, Riverside Gallery, NJ, 2015; Collision and Confluence: An Exhibition of Chinese-American Art Faculty, Asian Cultural Center Art Gallery, NYC, 2014; Makers in Print- International Exhibition, hosted by the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Wisconsin, 2013; Exhibition of Chinese Drawing from Central Academy of Fine Arts China, William Paterson University, 2011.
Cong opened the Chinese Ink Painting course at William Paterson University in 1997. Cong founded the Center for Chinese Art at William Paterson University in 2009, and he established the Chinese American Art Faculty Association in 2013. He has earned several awards such as: Gold Award for his work at Chinese-American Art Faculty Exhibition 2016; Gold Awards in the Annual Educational Advertising Awards for his project 2012 & 2016; Ground Award for the 24th Annual Award for Publication Excellence Competition by Communications Concepts, VI, 2012; Chinese Cultural Ambassador Award, New Jersey Chinese-American Chamber of Commerce, 2012.
Cong is an artist residing in America and with deep roots in China. His art is embedded in the artistic soul of China as well as the spirit of Western art. He is nurtured by culture and nature to express his inner voice and the external world. He and his work are one. He creates an original eternity of space and time. Cong persists in pursuing his own unique path of art. He does not follow fashion or trends. In America, he is viewed as an artist from China, but in China he is treated as an artist from America. But he considers himself presiding over the edge between the eastern and western arts, or the crossroads of eastern and western cultures. He would rather be rooted in this connecting zone of collision and union, to make his own adventurous explorations.