Ji Ben Ou: Suspended Ink 悬浮油墨

Ji Ben Ou: Suspended Ink 悬浮油墨

5 – 30 August 2023

Ji Ben Ou’s Suspended Ink 悬浮油墨 is a vibrant observation of the natural world at its ripest, drawing from a decades-long practice in Chinese ink and watercolour painting. An established landscape artist, here Ben Ou presents close studies of spring wildlife and rural scenes in this selection of smaller works on paper.

About the Artist

Ji Ben Ou was born in 1943 in Guangdong, China. He enrolled in his father’s school to study Chinese painting at five years of age, and in 1961 he joined the cultural centre as a professional painter. It was during this decade that Ben studied Chinese landscape painting with Li Yun, a renowned master of the Chinese Artists Association, and modern painting with Tan Dapeng of Guangzhou Academy of Painting. In 1972, he served as the president of Guangzhou Nanling Painting and Calligraphy Association. 

For almost two decades Ben lived in Fiji to sketch and paint, later joining the Fiji Artists Association. It wasn’t until 2003 that he moved to Aotearoa and became the Vice president of the New Zealand Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Art Association. Since then, he has been working full-time as a painter. He is now the Dean of the New Zealand Chinese Culture and Art Institute, the honorary chairman of the New Zealand Chinese Artists Association, and the chairman of the Federation of Chinese Calligraphers Associations.