Yingxue Zuo, Art department chair at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park, will be featured in the Missouri Masters Series this summer at the Kodner Gallery in Ladue.
The series features an educational discussion and demonstration by top artists in the state, and their most recent artworks can be viewed. Sales benefit local non-profit organizations. Zuo’s event is set for Saturday, Aug. 17, from 2 to 4 p.m., and it will benefit the American Parkinson Disease Association. Other artists are Joan Parker, June 15; Benjamin Guffee, July 20; and Irek Szelag, Sept. 14.
Gallery hours are 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Kodner Gallery is located at 9650 Clayton Road in St. Louis. To RSVP for events, call 314-993-4477.
Last fall, during a sabbatical in China, Zuo painted rural landscapes in the 'plein air' style, producing all works outdoors. An exhibit in the college's gallery was selected from the 70 oil paintings he created. He was one of 20 artists invited back to his native land. He also lectured at a university and worked with international students.
Zuo is internationally known for blending the ancient techniques of his birthplace China with those of contemporary Western practices. “The natural world is an infinite resource for arts – rich and colorful for honest visual content, great gifts,” he said. “I am a curious man by nature. My job as an artist is to avoid repeating myself. I am driven to pursue evolutionary change and grow as an artist.”
Zuo’s art has been exhibited in galleries locally, in New York City and Beijing. His works have been exhibited at Saint Louis and Washington universities, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Webster University and the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Zuo has been Forest Park Art department chair for four years, and has taught at STLCC for 13 years. He has been in St. Louis since 1990, after he earned a master’s of fine arts degree in painting and printmaking from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Zuo said he took up painting at age 17, which led to a career in art.
“This is my life, art is my life,” he said.
He received a bachelor’s degree in 1982 from Northeast Normal University in Changchun, which is in the Jilin Province. Zuo moved to the United States in 1986 and currently lives in Chesterfield.
Established in 1962, St. Louis Community College is the largest community college district in Missouri and one of the largest in the United States. STLCC has four campuses – Florissant Valley, Forest Park, Meramec and Wildwood – that annually serve more than 81,000 students through credit courses, continuing education and workforce development programs. For more information about STLCC, visit www.stlcc.edu.