ZHENGFU LU
Zhengfu Lu was born in Shanghai, China. He completed his undergraduate degree in Graphic Art in 1981 from the Shanghai Arts and Crafts College. He later obtained his Master of Fine Arts degree from San Francisco’s Academy of Arts College in 1993, on full scholarship provided by the Ricci Institute.
Lu began his career as an abstract painter thirty five years ago in Shanghai, China. His story is one of a child of Cultural Revolution, one of an aspiring painter and that of an ex-patriot. His journey from Shanghai to San Francisco culls stories of impossibilities with pure kismet and unfaltering goal to create art. Using a Shanghai office building and boarding house hallway as studio in 1980s, during the 10-year period he remained in China post graduation, Lu found, thorough abstract painting, a way in which he could express himself in the midst of utter repression. A fortuitous meeting with Father Malatesta, a Catholic priest, who had rare access to china during the 1970s and 1980s, began Lu’s introduction to the Western art world. The hallway where Lu and Father Malatesta met, an intersection between spaces and cultures, where Lu and Father Malatesta met, has become a metaphor in Lu’s painting.
Capturing a single ray of possibility and opening a dialog between the viewer and artist. Lu’s work provides a fine balance between abstract expressionism and mythic imagery. Strong vibrant use of color and light are landmarks in Lu’s works, along with the ever present feeling of hope overcoming despair. Lu’s large-scale paintings captivate with surface texture and n intense use of evocative colors and light. His art works are bold, complex and insistent.
Lu’s work is currently held in numerous private, public and corporate collections, both nationally and internationally.
