Untitled - Portrait

Xu Yanzhou was born in 1961 in Qin Dao City, China. He earned a Master of Fine Art degree from Tulane University. He has studied and taught at the Shangdong Institute of Arts and the Central Institute of Fine Arts in China; at University of Regina in Canada; and at Newcomb Art College in the United States. A major figure in the school of rural realistic painting in China and master of contemporary realism, he became a member of the Chinese National Society of Artists at the young age of 24. When he was 28 he became the first artist in China both to publish a personal painting monograph and to have a solo exhibition in the Chinese National Fine Arts Museum. At that time, five of his oil paintings were acquired for the National Fine Arts Museum permanent collection. In the last decade, both his older works and his newer paintings have come to market via art auctions in China and internationally, and have achieved prices in excess of $100,000 USD.