Chinese Contemporary Artist, Huanbin Cai, Joins Fine Art Registry™ to Expand His Horizons
Fine Art Registry™ Member, Huanbin Cai
by
Lihua Zhao
Huanbin Cai, nicknamed Chase, was born in a working class family in the city of Shantou in Guangdong province in 1980. But from an early age Chase had a great interest in painting. He often used comic strips and cartoon books as the source materials from which to draw inspiration for his paintings.
In 1993, he began to study painting formally under well-known Shantou artist Cai Baolie. Born in 1945, Cai Baolie is a member of the Chinese Art Society and China’s Industrial Design Society, is Vice-Chairman and Secretary-General of Shantou City’s Art Association, and is one of Shantou City’s most talented artists.
Cai Baolie's works have been selected for many National Art Exhibitions and he has received many awards for his art. Some of his outstanding works have been included in the collections of the Chinese Fine Art Museum and Guangdong Fine Art Museum, and have been published in the Japanese Anthology of Chinese Modern Fine Art. He has also exhibited at the China Museum of Fine Art. He was a great master for Huanbin to study under.
In 1999, Huanbin Cai studied at the Shantou University College of Art, where he learned Chinese styles of painting, oil painting, water colors, installation art and other related subjects.
In 2002, his work was shown for the first time at the National Watercolor Association exhibition. After that, Huanbin was firmly on the road to creation which earned him the attention of the local art association, until in 2007 when he joined the Association of Chinese Artists.
Chase used his own life experiences and emotions as the main creative subject matter. He said “When I close my eyes, there always emerge in my mind so many exciting images, I firmly believe that this subconsciously represents the most authentic, most personalized symbols of inspiration. When identifying creative themes, I usually use these images. To finish my creation, when I paint, my emotion and desire always bring me many pleasant surprises.”
Media
“Usually I use oil, acrylics, watercolors, xuan paper (a famous paper produced in Sichuan which is used for painting), and ink, and many other media,” continues Chase. “Only by fully utilizing the diversity of painting materials will I be able to provide the greatest variety of personal artistic expression. Therefore, a distinction of the types of painting for me is of little significance. So I do not specifically define my artworks, since some people may find that I use a certain kind of material to create works of greater vitality.”
Every one of Huanbin’s paintings is just like a story, showing the life of a scene, capturing the beauty of a moment in time, reflecting the realities of life. His works portray in depth, the meaning of life. When you examine his paintings carefully, you cannot fail to appreciate the energy and vitality with which he has combined scenes from life with his own feelings, opening a window on some small detail of the world for all to see. Let us go with him to taste life.
Since 2002, many of his pieces have been chosen for major exhibitions, especially in 2006 when one of his works called Uncle's Yard was included in the International Chaoshanren Youth Art Exhibition, and received an outstanding award.
Chase and Fine Art Registry™
Chase heard of Fine Art Registry from Lihua Zhao, FAR® representative in China, who gave him a great deal of introductory information on the organization. Of his current situation he says, “Since I began to create paintings, I have never sold any of them although my pieces were shown in several exhibitions. I don’t feel that there is a good chance to sell my works in China because there are so many replicas and copies around. Nobody will know if my work is original work or a replica. I have always waited for a good chance, a good platform on which to show my work. And finally I recognized in Fine Art Registry what I have been looking for.
“Under the influence of the high prices fetched by contemporary art – the social fame and fortune factors and so on – the art market in China has run into disorder and confusion,” continues Chase. Fakes, copies, replicas and forgeries have greatly impacted on the market and have been very damaging to the interests of buyers and collectors.
“In China, there is the problem that when artists register lots of original artworks on the free sites (online sales galleries), if these original artworks are found by the gangs of forgers, they make use of them for mass production and sales with unimaginably bad consequences for the artists and the buyers. So how do you know if a work is original? The answer is in Fine Art Registry.
“Most people still insist on originals and have no desire to deal with criminals. Our real admiration is for the artists who live just for creating art, never just for the money.”
Chase heard of the solution Fine Art Registry offers to the problems of authenticity and provenance and greatly agreed with the concept. It is the conditions of society which have brought Fine Art Registry into existence.
Without such strict regulation of the art market, original artists face a dark future and a difficult life. In the end the fakers and forgers turn art into shoddy work done to make a living and totally lose sight of the spiritual and ideological concepts of creative art.
FAR tags greatly protect the original artists' copyright, allowing their works to smoothly enter the international market, not only fetching a better price, but also helping to protect the interests of the buyers or the collectors who buy the artist's work for their artistic value but also as investment in the arts. So Chase tags and registers his paintings and the FAR website is the record of his works, permanently and forever. It’s just being able to establish that provenance for his clients.
Chase also has hopes that FAR can provide him room for development in the USA and other countries outside China. He wants to develop his art from outside the country as he feels China has no room for him to develop as a creative artist with his social themes. He wants to develop his art from abroad to begin.
For all these reasons Chase decided to join Fine Art Registry, hoping to explore new markets, mainly in the USA, and that his works will be accepted by buyers or collectors. That’s his dream.
— by Lihua Zhao
|
December 5, 2007
|
Print Version - 
PDF (1.25 Mb)
Discuss article | 
Print this page | 
The views and opinions of individual authors/contributors expressed on the FAR® web site do not necessarily state or reflect those views and/or opinions of Fine Art Registry® or its agents or subsidiaries.
