Meet Hao Shen

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hao Shen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hao, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

Continuous observation and reading are the keys to keeping my creativity alive. In today’s diversified forms of artistic expression, it encourages artists to try or discover new materials or expressions to fit and display their works and concepts. Continuous thinking and action are undoubtedly full of challenges and uncertainties, which can be said to be very exciting, because I do not know in what kind of accidental situation, I will find the long-awaited answers and results. This will keep me passionate about exploring and seeking things.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am an artist. I am trying my best to demonstrate my understanding of my own painting choices, such as: Why figurative painting, how to paint, what can figurative painting do, what can I do for painting? All of these are what I tend to explore and express.
Now I mainly focus on the theme of “shape.” In English, the word “shape” has two meaning, one is a noun, and the other is a verb. Shape is an indispensable factor in visual art. I start from its meaning as a noun to look for the distorted and eroded shapes in daily life, the so-called failed shapes that are not of boring and regular industrial products. I show and record them in my paintings and photography. When it comes to “shape” as a verb, the question of what shapes “me” into the “me” today is also a significant element. Several years ago, I paid more attention to the terms “imitation” ， and “replication” to express the theme shape by only using palette knives as a tool to imitate the visual effect of painting with brushes.
About why I chose figurative painting as the main form of expression, it is mainly because it is rooted from the figures and tries its best to imitate the appearance of objects as the main method to achieve the purpose of painting. In fact, a limited number of artists can replicate the object’s true form 100% or 90% of the time. That is to say, the image changes during the imitation process, causing the depicted image to change, for example, changes in proportion, a little bit adjustment of shape, and trade-offs in details. Therefore, we can think that the painted object has been transformed into a new image independent of its original image, which can also be called a new symbol. This is the evolution that occurs in imitation, and it is also what I have always been interested in, to discover it, realize it, and display it.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

For me, as an artist, I never stop training my techniques. Here, “skills” refer to not only painting skills, but also experimentation with new tools, study of art theory knowledge, attention to fields other than art, and understanding of world affairs. These are professional qualities necessary for outstanding contemporary artists, because to this day contemporary art has grown so infinitely compatible and so diverse in forms. But to achieve this will be a very long way, a race against time, and a fight against one’s own laziness. For fellow artists who have just started their art journey, cultivating their interest in art to passion is very essential, because if you can keep creating art, you will realize that artistic activities are closely connected with your self-expression and identity. You will then reach out to learn and gain deeper understanding, which in return further nourishes your enthusiasm. With passion, what else can stop you?

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

There is no doubt that the people I am most grateful for are my wife and parents. My wife not only took on the pressure of taking care of my daily life, but also helped me very patiently to find what kind of art was suitable for me. It was a very long process. It took me four years to learn and find my own unique way of expression. Having said so much, it is obvious that my wife is also an artist. She sacrificed a lot of her working time to accompany and enlighten me. I became an optimistic and tough guy who can withstand setbacks again. Of course, this is a bit self-boasting, but I just want to emphasize how important my wife is to my career. With her support, I began to work with galleries, held several personal exhibitions, and participated in a series of group exhibitions. My career path has become more and more solid. My parents also spared no effort to support me. They never questioned my choice. Although they knew that life was difficult and stressful in the early stage of an artist’s career, they still supported me, not only gave me financial aid, but also were proud of my insignificant successes. They are the cornerstones of my career path and have made me what I am today.

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