You are cordially invited to the opening of the exhibition “Jiawei Shen and the Archi”.

Jiawei Shen was born in Shanghai in 1948. Largely self-taught, Jiawei became a well-known artist in China in the mid-1970s during the Cultural Revolution. Jiawei moved to Australia in 1989, and submitted his first entry work for the Archibald Portrait Prize in 1992. Up till 2017, Jiawei has entered the Archibald Portrait Prize 23 times and 14 times as finalist, including being awarded the runner-up once in 1997. Up to now, 13 of these 23 Archi entries have been acquired by public or private collections. In this exhibition, Jiawei will bring 8 of his portraits, including the privately collected portrait by the Director of White Rabbit Art Gallery, “How to Explain Art with a White Rabbit (2015)”, to the gallery of Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture. You are invited to join us and celebrate the work of the great artist!

To be opened by Luise Guest, Research Manager, White Rabbit Gallery

Artist Statement

From 1990 to 2018, there were 25 China-born artists ( not including Jenny Sages ) to become finalists of the Archibald Portrait Prize, they were all came from main land China from 1980s and 1990s (only a few in after 2000 ), most of them had art school training background when they were in China. Many of them to be finalists were not only once. So that the total finalist paintings by them, were 64 pieces.

Jenny Sages as the senior generation artist is not belonging this Chinese group, but she was born in Shanghai in 1933, and left Shanghai in 1948 ( the year I was born the same city, a few streets away from her home in French Concession ), In the Archibald area, she was the finalist for 20 times with 7 times to be High Commented ( it means runner-up many times ).

I myself was among the group of these China-born Archibald Prize finalists. I submitted the first entry work Mabel (1991) in 1992 but didn’t be selected. From the next year I became finalist continously for seven years. Up to last year I used be entry for 23 times and 14 times as finalist, including runner-up once in 1997. Up to now, 13 of these 23 Archi entrys had been into public or private collections, only 10 left with me. In this exhibition I am showing 8 of them, one of these eight, How to Explain Art With A White Rabbit (2015) is in the collection of the White Rabbit Art Gallery, Thanks Judith Neilson, its Subject and owner, kindly to loan it for this exhibition. Other 7, are all in my own collection. In all these 8, three used be finalist, in the rest five, very much occasionally, two used win the Holding Redlich People’s Choice Award in the Salon des Refuses exhibition at the S.H.Ervin Gallery in 2003 and 2007.

I am a born portraitist. Because the Archibald Prize which running in the past one century, Australia has been a paradise of the portrait artists in the world. How much lucky I am that to live and work in this country!