B. 1960 – 

Ji Chen is a contemporary artist who was born in Shanghai, China. He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at Shanghai Drama Academy, going on to become a chief set designer for the Beijing Opera Theatre Company of China before pivoting into fine art after he won a national prize for his watercolour ‘pool’. 

Chen relocated with his family to Australia in 1989. He has become renowned here for his painting style, characterised by thickly applied impasto paint. Depicting waterscapes and landscapes, Chen’s work moves between the sumptuous and ethereal, distilling both the mood and atmosphere of the natural world. As Professor Sasha Grishin has written, Chen is “an artist for all seasons”. 

Chen has exhibited across Australia and internationally including in New York and London. He has won numerous art awards including People’s Choice at the Fleurieu Peninsula Biennale International Art Prize in 2002, 2004 and 2006 and People’s Choice at Tattersall’s invitation only 26th Landscape Art Prize in 2016.