Seventh-day Adventist artist Li Wei San says his recent solo exhibition in Beijing, China, was aimed at sharing important Christian themes through traditional Chinese painting.
Seventh-day Adventist artist Li Wei San says his recent solo exhibition in Beijing, China, was aimed at sharing important Christian themes through traditional Chinese painting. The four-day art show, held in mid-April and sponsored by the China Christian Council, featured just a part of Li’s extensive body of work; the 74-year-old Li has produced some 1,000 paintings and illustrations, many of which have been reproduced in books, magazines, and cards in China and around the world.
Li’s paintings embrace traditional Chinese style and techniques, and feature Chinese backdrops and characters, but they tell uniquely Christian stories. In one painting, Jesus walks on the Great Wall of China surrounded by children. In another, a depiction of a well-known New Testament story, Li has painted a young Chinese woman drawing water from a well as Jesus sits nearby and speaks with her. Each painting shown in the exhibition brochure lists the Bible text the work illustrates.
Li says he thanks God for the opportunity to “preach the Gospel” through this medium.
Born in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, Li studied at Hong Kong Adventist College and later worked as a refrigeration engineer in Xi’an. Now retired, Li has shown his work in Canada, Singapore, Vienna, and the United States, and his paintings have been selected for a number of national exhibitions in China.
To view some of Li’s paintings, go to www.adventist.org.