Countless animals, including some already extinct, emerge from painter Shen Shubin's canvas, in starkly humanized poses, hugging each other, holding parties or simply struggling to survive.
The Beijing-based oil painter's solo show at the Beijing Minsheng Art Museum offers up about 40 large-scale oil pantings Shen has produced in recent years, all of which focus on animals. It is a subject the painter says he has concentrated on for the past decade and plans to continue in the future.
Titled Rebirth on the Road of Pilgrimage, Shen's show features both large-scale paintings and sculptures. The longest work on display is an oil painting entitled Noah's Ark, which measures about 11 meters long. The three lifelike sculptures on show attempt to offer rebirth to extinct or endangered species: a Javan tiger, which used to live on the Indonesian island, a Florida black wolf (a subspecies of the red wolf which became extinct in 1908) and the white rhinoceros－a species where only a remaining few survive in captivity.
"All species in nature are equal and should be shown respect. It's not a right particular to human beings," says Shen, 39.
Shen adds that all his animal paintings bear human characteristics or can be viewed as a metaphor for human society.
"Shen tries to remind us that humans are not the dominant force in nature. He also explores how people live with themselves and their peers through the depiction of animals," says Wang Chunchen, curator of the show.
In his Hugging series, the painter juxtaposes normally rival animals hugging each other in a show of affection, such as a wolf hugging a goat and a tiger embracing a zebra. In his Tower series, he has animals fight with each other to struggle up a road to reach a summit.
"It's common to see conflicts arise between people. I use the hug between different species to tell people that we should learn to love each other."
"As for the towers, everyone is driven by their desire to climb to a higher class. In fact, their fate is doomed and controlled by an unknown power," explains Shen of his paintings.
In some of his works, he places various animals into specifically-shaped containers, such as a triangle, a star, or a circle, to show that each one remains fettered by the rules of nature.
All these animals are painted onto a huge wasteland, which the artist says is how he imagines the future world.
He can't tell exactly how many hundreds of species appear on his canvases, but Shen is sure of his love for animals. Having owned pets since childhood, he has watched lots of documentaries on them, and visited many natural history museums and zoos－which he refuses to do now because he says he can't bear seeing animals held in captivity.
The painter had a dog when he was a little boy which walked him to school and back home every day. He also raised a white horse then and loved caressing the horse's jaw.
Because of his focus on animals, many organizations ask for his help.
He is currently working with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a US-based animal rights organization, to produce a work on the theme. Shen says he is also considering staging a work of performance art where he paints from a cage while animals outside watch him.
"For me, it's more about just protecting animals. It's about protecting their right to be alive," he adds.
If you go
10 am-5 pm, through Oct 24. 9 North Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-53232111.
