From September 26, 2018 to January 20, 2019, Long Museum (West Bund) will present Shen Jiawei's solo exhibition "Standing Guard for Our Great Motherland". This is the first large-scale exhibition of Shen Jiawei's works in China in the 1970s.

In June 1970, 22-year-old Shen Jiawei voluntarily went to Heilongjiang to participate in the development and construction of the Great Northern Wilderness, and served as an artist in the Propaganda Unit the following year. From 1971 to 1976, Shen Jiawei was seconded to Mishan and Jiamusi in Heilongjiang for several months each year to engage in art creation. During this period, the artist created the oil painting "Standing Guard for Our Great Motherland" (1974) reflecting the relationship between China and the Soviet Union. In the same year, it was selected as the "National Art Exhibition Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China", which became a symbolic work during the 1960s and 1970s. The work was once collected by the National Art Museum of China. 

In "Standing Guard for Our Great Motherland", Shen Jiawei stood in the middle of tower which is high above the border between China and the Soviet Union to create the painting. The border warriors on duty stood up like sculptures with rigidity. The painting embodies a sense of revolutionary realism and romanticism. In 1982, the work returned to the artist himself, and was then put under the bed for fifteen years. In 1997, it was restored by the artist, and it was successively exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, USA, Bilbao, Spain (1998) and Asia Society Museum (2008).

This exhibition focuses on the creation process of "Standing Guard for Our Great Motherland" and will focus on more than 90 manuscripts, sketches, sketches, and oil paintings created by Shen Jiawei from 1968 to 1976. Some of them have been left in the dust for more than 40 years, so this is the first time that they are exhibited in a global context. 

These paintings clearly show the artist's endless artistic exploration in the 1970s. The Long Museum expects the visitors to gain a glimpse of the history of intellectual youth building a great China in the 1970s and publicizes their hard work. 

About the Artist

Shen Jiawei was born in Shanghai in September 1948. In the 1960s and 1970s, he mainly relied on self-study and became a famous Chinese painter in the mid-1970s. He graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts from 1982 to 1984, and worked as a full-time painter in Shenyang. Shen Jiawei has won the National Art Exhibition Award five times.

In early 1989, Shen Jiawei moved to Australia. As a top portrait artist, he created official portraits for many Australian dignitaries: Pope Francis of Rome (2013), Princess Mary of Denmark (2005), Australian Prime Minister Howard (2009), Australian Governor General Cosgrove (2018) and many more.

Since 1993, Shen Jiawei has been shortlisted for the Akibauer Portrait Award 14 times, including one second place (1997); he has also been shortlisted for the Doug Moran Portrait Award many times (1994, 1996, 2006, 2007, 2017) and won twice The third prize of Royal Art at the Sydney Agricultural Fair; in 1995, Shen Jiawei was awarded the first place in the Mary McGoop Art Prize, and was awarded a medal by Pope John Paul II; in 2006, he was awarded the Sir John Sherman Award; in 2016 won the Gripoli Art Prize. 

Shen Jiawei applied his portrait talent to large-scale historical painting creation: his Australian epic "The Turn of the Century" (1998), created more than 100 historical figures; his Malaysian epic "Mudka" (2008), created 260 historical figures; His Chinese epic "Brothers on the Wall" (2010-2017), created more than 450 historical figures.

Shen Jiawei’s works are collected in major art galleries and museums around the world: 18 of his works are collected by the National Museum of China, the National Art Museum of China, and the Chinese Revolutionary Military Museum; 6 of his works are collected by the National Portrait Gallery and the Federal Parliament Building in Canberra, Australia; his creation of the portrait of Pope Francis is in the Vatican.

Shen Jiawei currently lives and works in Australia and Beijing.