all in the mind

Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée  -  The Union of Painting and Sculpture,  1768 

French, 1724-1805 

Selected works by Tang Wei Min (唐伟民).

Tang Wei Min was born in Yong Zhou, Hunan Province in 1971. He graduated from the Art Department of Hunan Standard College, where he majored in Oil Painting in 1991. Since then he has worked as a professional oil painter.

Tang is inspired by remains - what lives, leaves, and is left behind thereafter. Many of Tang’s works depict beautiful, young women, yet their beauty is unfailingly ornamented - weighed down with the symbols of culture and tradition. The motif of cultural decoration appears to be rooted in Tang’s visit to the Mawangdui Museum in Changsha, China. There, he saw the tomb of a West Han Dynasty princess, and in it, a beautiful mummy, surrounded by finery and the trappings of wealth. According to Tang, her image sparked a revelation that “everything disappears with… death”, and “only the treasury… left is silently telling… [a] story”. Tang’s artistic portfolio is perhaps his own way of establishing the weight of existence - securing a legacy that will outlive him beyond the grave.