Shang Ding - Lanning Gallery [Sedona Arizona]

Shang Ding - A featured artist at the Lanning Gallery [Sedona Arizona]

Shang Ding was fourteen when his parents were arrested and held for three years during China’s Cultural Revolution. This event, during the late 1960s, dramatically changed the life of the budding young artist. Shang grew up as the youngest of six children, his father a journalist and his mother a factory union leader, and remembers becoming intrigued by painting at the age of three. But the imprisonment of his parents fixed Shang with the urgent need to secure his future by dedicating himself to his artistic studies.

At seventeen, Shang joined the army working at his paintings by flashlight at night. Eight years of painting under these conditions gave the young artist a deep understanding of ordinary people and their perseverance in the face of hardship and fear. He labored at the frontlines of several battles in southern China while China was at war with North Vietnam – after the U.S. had pulled out. Shang’s paintings of soldiers at war elicited the very best of his talent and his work began receiving awards.

"Hong Han"
Oil on Canvas Painting
10" x 8"

"The Village Girl by Garden Fence"
Oil on Canvas Painting
30" x 40"

In 1974, at an art show in Beijing, Shang’s work was noticed by Mao Zedong’s wife. Greatly impressed that such talent could come from a 20-year-old she drew tremendous attention to his work. Professors from the Central Art Academy were equally impressed, and Shang began his path to fame in China. Shang received a Masters Degree from the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts and became an Associate Professor at the Peoples Liberation Army Academy of Art, delivering regular lectures at the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts. Shang Ding is now a highly acclaimed oil painter in China and an eminently respected professor of painting there. He is noted in several reference publications in China that cite great Chinese painters since the 1700’s. His paintings of the Cultural Revolution and Chinese army life provided these events with exquisitely skilled and rare documentation.

In the late 1980s Shang was able to pursue his desire to begin a new art career in the West. As impressed as he is with the United States, adjustments did not always come easy. “Life here is always new and changing; the culture is new and people are not afraid of change.” In China, Shang had stories to tell but his expression was limited; in America, it is his goal to tell an international story that everyone can relate to. Today, as Shang moves comfortably between the U.S. and China, he finds his oil paintings exhibited in every major museum in China as well as Japan and other countries. His paintings are currently being collected by museums, galleries and private collections across the U.S.

Click on a painting to see a larger view.

"Girl in Wind of April"
Oil on Canvas Painting
24" x 30"

"Boat"
Oil on Canvas Painting
24" x 18"
Shang Ding and Shang Qian

Artist's prices beginning at $2,500.

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"Hong Han by Fence"
Oil on Canvas Painting
20" x 16"

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