LIN WEI ARTIST

CURRICULUM VITAE

4/15/23 to 6/25/23 - Lin Wei's entry, The Dove, selected for the About Face exhibition, at the Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA

10/2022 - Lin Wei's entry, The Dove, selected as back cover of Spotlight Contemporary Art Magazine 31

5/28/2022 - Lin Wei leads Asian Arts School presentation of the Peace Art Exhibition outdoors at the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco.

4/20/22 - Lin Wei's entries, Separation and Sunflowers in War, selected for the No More War Art Online Exhibition.

2019 to 2022 - Frida in my Imagination included in the National Tour of World of Frida, at multiple U.S. locations.

7/8/18 to 9/8/18 - Frida in my Imagination, selected for the World of Frida exhibition, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA

3/11/18 to 3/25/18 - Thirty-one works presented by Lin Wei as part of San Francisco Open Studio and the Asian Arts School Teachers and Students Painting Exhibition,Asian Arts School Exhibition Hall, San Francisco

9/23 /17 to 10/8/17 - Six portraits for the With Liberty and Justice for Some exhibition, Art Center Gallery, Berkeley, CA

3/25/17 to 4/8/17 - One portrait, With Liberty and Justice for Some exhibition, San Francisco Art Council Galleries, San Francisco, CA

1/7/17 to 3/4/17 - One portrait, With Liberty and Justice for Some exhibition, Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2014 - Published Drawing Instruction Book - A full color, step by step drawing book for children.

2007 - Opened Asian Arts Studio, (now Asian Arts School LLC) in San Francisco.

2003 - Published Journal Entries, Wei Lin Discovers America, a book of annotated drawings that portray, in scenes real and imagined, the_unfolding of Lin Wei's first ten years in America.

2001 - Commission by the CCSF Women's Resource Center:A Mural featuring portraits of the twelve founders of the center.Dedicated in 2002 and_still on display in 2024.

2000 - Commissions by the CCSF Women's Resource Center:Exhibition of selected paintings at the library gallery of CCSF as part of Asian cultural celebrations.

2000 to 2009 - Lin Wei was a computer graphics designer and illustrator for a major engineering and architectural design firm in San Francisco.

November & December, 1998 - Lin Wei exhibited four oil paintings at the Women’s Painting Exhibit at the Chinese Culture Center in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

June,1996 - One-woman show titled Whispering Shandong, featuring twenty-three oil paintings at Styler’s Art Gallery in San Francisco.

January,1994 - Lin Wei delivered a lecture at UC Davis titled "Contemporary Chinese Women Artists in the People’s Republic of China"

November, 1993 - At painter and professor Hung Liu's invitation, Lin Wei delivered a lecture at Mills College titled "Contemporary Chinese Women Artists in the People's Republic of China."

1991 - Lin Wei exhibited commercially at the Shenzhen Art Gallery, the Singapore Art Gallery, and The 13 Art Gallery of Hong Kong.

1989 to1993 - Lin Wei lectured at the Shandong Art Institute (Now the Shandong University of Arts)

1988 - Oil painting titled Dream House and Boy exhibited at Shandong Art Museum in tribute to Shandong Artists

1988 - Lin Wei's 5 entries selected to The Six Women Art Exhibition at Shandong Art Museum.

1988 to1993 - Taught at Shandong University of Arts, China

1987 - Lin Wei presented The Journey at the First National Chinese Oil Painting Exhibition at the Shanghai Museum of Art.

1987 - Lin Wei's 7 entries selected for the Central Academy of Fine Arts Graduation Exhibition at the National Art Museum of China.

1985 to 1987 - Graduate study at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China

1984 - Solo Exhibition at Qufu Normal University, Shandong, China

1982-1985 - Taught at Qufu Normal University, Shandong, China

1977 to 1982 - BA Studies in Fine Arts at Qufu Normal University, Shandong, China

Lin Wei Self-Portrait "In Red" Oil Painting, 2010

Lin Wei was born in 1958 and raised on the campus of Qufu Normal University in Shandong, China. Her earliest works of art were chalk drawings on the concrete walls of university housing. She went on to be recognized for her artistic skills throughout her school years, and even during her mandated service in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution.

In 1977, Lin Wei returned to Qufu Normal University to complete her undergraduate studies in art. In 1983, she became a teacher there. In 1985 Lin was selected as the 1985 Shandong Province enrollee to the masters program at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, the premier art school of China. There, in the center of Chinese fine arts, she completed her graduate studies in oil painting and launched her career as a painter.

On the strength of her final exhibition there, Lin Wei was appointed lecturer at the Shandong Institute of Fine Arts where she taught for six years

In 1993, she was invited to deliver a lecture at Mills College in Oakland. In California, she found further opportunities for growth in her art and her life.

In 1994, she settled in San Francisco where she soon mounted her first solo exhibition of paintings in California. She also found work as a graphic artist in an architectural design and engineering firm. In 2007, she opened an art school that is now called Asian Arts School LLC. It offers online and in-person classes for students of all ages.

Lin Wei's principle occupation continues to be painting. The demand for her work is such that her projects demand daily attention.

Lin Wei's painting style derives from academic realism, but mixes and softens with the bold colors and simple patterns of Chinese folk art. This mixture animates her canvases, and yet grounds them in personal experiences. Her ethic is hard work, which is why she is a respected teacher of art. Her themes are immigration to America, Chinese family values, the aspirations of women, and the liberty and discipline of being an artist. That’s what she came here to be.