Venice (20×24 oil painting on canvas)

Xue Jian was born on October 17th in 1954 in NanJing, The People’s Republic of China. Jian moved to the United States in 1988 and began studies at Bard College in New York, where he graduated with an MFA in 1991. New York City offered him his first artistic subjects by way of Central Park and the many sidewalk restaurants. In his works, Jian demonstrates his passion for conveying the changes in natural light throughout the course of a day. He balances impressionistic style with realism. His inspirations were Monet, Renoir and Sisley. His works are in the permanent collections of the Suzhou Art Museum and the Jiangsu Art Museum in Najing, as well as the National Gallery, Beijing. He has also shown at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall in New York, and has had exhibitions abroad at the Art Museums of Kobe and Tokyo in Japan and at the Melbourne National Gallery in Australia.