“Loulan Girl” 32″ x 24″

“Longshan Girls, Betrothed” 12″ x 8″

“Early Spring” 16″ x 16″

Three times finalist of International Portrait competitions in the US, Canada and China. Winner of the Exceptional Merit Award by the Portrait Society of America. Honorable Mention in the Art Renewal Center’s International ARC Salon. Winner (2^nd place) of the International Child Portrait Competition. Winner of the Charles B.Wang competition in China.

Tang Wei Min was born in 1971 in YongZhou, Hunan Province. In 1991 Tang graduated from the Art Department of Hunan Standard College, where he majored in Oil Painting. Since that time he is working as a professional oil painter. In 2001, Wei Min was accepted into a graduate study program of Oil Panting in Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.

In the same 2001 his panting “Girl with fan” was sponsored by the school for the prestigious scholarship named after “Charles B.Wang”. The painting received second price at the exhibition organized for this scholarship and Wei Min received the scholarship. This work, now in private collection, also was selected for the May 2001 issue of “Chinese Oil Painting “.

His work “Summer dream” was displayed in the tryout of “China Oil Portray” exhibition. Yet another Tang’s work “Peeping” was shown at the Present-day Oil Painting exhibition in the Hunan Province.

In 2003 The Beijing Museum of Fine Art exhibited and purchased his painting. Tang is a practicing Zen Buddhist and his work full of symbols of Buddhism.

In 2008-2011 Wei Min took part in several important fine art juried shows and competitions in China. In 2010 his oil on board panting based on his earlier work “Motherhood” won the 2^nd prize at the Hangzhou National Juried Art Show. Same painting won “Public Admiration” award on the Hong Kong 2011 Art Fair.

In 2012 Tang Wei Min became a finalist of the China National Competition of Oil Paintings called “New Realism” and received prestigious “Exceptional merit” diploma/award. The works of the finalists were exhibited in the China Art Museum in Beijing.

His painting “Motherhood” was purchased by the National Art Museum of China, or NAMOC, for the permanent collection of the department of oil paintings.  

Tang’s paintings became fashionable among Chinese novo-rich and his prices are growing daily. During January – March 2012 Wei Min will be engaged in preparation of a series of paintings that would decorate a mansion of the Governor of Shanghai. During the fall of 2012 the paintings will be exhibited in the Shanghai City Gallery for public view.

Currently Tang lives in a monastery near his home town, in order to be spiritually clean for painting of art, and to be surrounded by the objects he depicts in his art – world of the ancient China. Tang considers art of painting as his way to bring harmony, balance and beauty to the world.

Tang is married with a 2-years old son. His wife Youpin is his constant inspiration and a model for most of his paintings. She is also a researcher that looks for objects and costumes for his paintings. Together they create stories (spiritual meanings) of each painting that Tang Wei Min paints.

Personal story as it is told by Wei Min himself:

When I was five, I saw a person drawing a pig on a piece of paper. The pig was so vivid that looked like a real one. I admired him very much. Then, I took out my pen and started my own drawing. It wasn’t very successful, but I continued and used to make sketches on blank margins of textbooks. Then I started to copy prints of Chinese painting. 

When I was in middle school I began to paint post office stamps. The stamps I created were so close to real ones that they often tricked my teachers and classmates. I once sent a mail using my painted stamp and was proud of my deed for several hours, until my mom found what I did.

When I was 18 years old I passed national college admission exam and went to Art Department of Hunan Normal College majoring in oil painting. I started to read art books in the college. I learned the outline of the histories of Chinese and Western painting. I knew that painting was not only a skill and, moreover, was an expression of thought and spirit. I started to observe carefully the traditional culture and its vision art. I scored excellent in my test during my college study and several of my paintings were purchased for the collection of my university.

I seriously studied Chines vision arts, and carefully investigated many modern Western arts including pictures and text data.  I respectfully studied oriental wisdom and teachings by Confucius, Buddhism, and Taoism. Occasionally I understood some of them and felt very happy. I felt a breeze of Zen flowing in my heart.

Among many painters I like Magritte from Belgium because heart likes unknown in the view of Magritte. Heart likes symbols with implication unknown to human. The meaning of heart is unknown. Magritte quietly works on his canvas and creates puzzling vision pictures one after another. I also love Dali. Rembrandt is my guiding light. In my dreams I am his apprentice. I am trying to bridge Oriental and Western cultures. After all, we are all humans.