Ceramic artist wins first prize at ICIF

Zhang Wenlin, a local ceramic artist in Shenzhen, poses for a photo holding his certificate after winning first prize at the 15th China Arts and Crafts Culture and Creativity Competition on Monday. Courtesy of Zhang Wenlin

Zhang Wenlin, a local ceramic artist in Shenzhen, won first prize at the 15th China Arts and Crafts Culture and Creativity Competition during the 18th China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair (ICIF) that concluded Monday.

Zhang’s winning work is a pair of blue and white porcelain named “A Pair of Kingfishers’ Love by Riverside.” He said the inspiration came from Shenzheners’ stories of preserving and protecting the city’s green hills and clear waters. “Various plant and bird species peacefully coexist with humans, thus forming a good ecological environment and building a harmonious homeland in Shenzhen. The lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets for us Shenzhen people and this pair of kingfishers, like the ones from the ‘Book of Songs,’ is a symbol of people’s happiness in love and life,” Zhang said.

The creation combines the freehand in-glaze blue-and-white with the innovative in-glaze decoration technique, as well as the cultural painting techniques of the Xin’an School of Painting with Jingdezhen ceramic art, making the porcelain more colorful and artistically charming.

Zhang is a successor of the three masters of the Xin’an School of Painting (Zhang Hanfei, Zhang Junyi and Zhang Zhongping); the disciple of modern Chinese painter Huang Binhong, and a successor of the well-known Jingdezhen ceramic family (Zhang Yuxian and Zhang Yinling). He has been engaged in traditional Chinese painting for over 30 years and is a vice chairman of the Shenzhen Dapeng New Area Calligraphers Association and the director of Shenzhen Longhua District Artists Association.

The China Arts and Crafts Culture and Creativity Competition is one of the highest-standard events in China’s arts and crafts circle. As one of the highlights of the annual ICIF, it has been successfully held for 14 sessions since 2007 and has witnessed the continuous improvement of the national arts and crafts skills and creation.

The competition aims to promote the integration of fine traditional culture and innovative ideas, to encourage practitioners to make bold innovations in terms of materials, designs and themes, so as to create artworks that can be collected, appreciated and utilized in people’s lives.