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The South Pasadena Summer Arts Crawl, a “Neighborhood-Night-on-the-Town”, will take place from 5 pm to 9 pm on Saturday, July 15 with a variety of art galleries, live music shows, and other entertaining family activities. They will be presented at more than 20 venues, including four restaurants, around the city’s Mission Street Business District and surrounding streets.
A very special Art Exhibit with live music will be presented in the Library Community Room from 7 pm to 9 pm. It is sponsored by the South Pasadena Public Library, the Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library, and the South Pasadena Chinese American Club. The event will showcase a striking Chinese-themed exhibit of contemporary paintings and sculptures by emerging artist Shenping Wang. Also featured will be a musical performance by Judy Ying, a highly accomplished Guzheng player. The 21-stringed plucked instrument has a storied history in China spanning more than 2500 years and has been compared to the zither in many other countries. Shenping Wang’s artwork can be viewed during the entire Library event and the Judy Ying’s musical performance will start around 7:30 p.m. Special thanks to the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, SPACE, EDI Media Inc., and East-West Bank.
Shenping Wang was born in China 27 years ago and earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Beijing Technology and Business University in 2003. Interestingly, when he first graduated from college, Mr. Wang wanted nothing at all to do with painting or sculpture –or even the art world as a whole. Nevertheless, the artistic muse grabbed his attention once again and by 2008 he had already created his own studio and was producing and selling his own original, unique sculptures.
Shenping Wang’s current series of artworks is called “Limitation” and the title stems from his childhood and adolescent experiences in China. When he was a boy, Wang always lived in a small space with his parents and his bed was just a wooden box. As a college student in China he lived in a dormitory where eight students were squeezed into one 20 square foot room. The experience of living in such limited space for more than two decades became the driving force for the young artist’s work which focuses on the expressions of emotion that occur when people live in environments without much room.
Whether it be struggle, silence, perplexity, or anxiety, the full range of human expression is embodied in Shenping’s artworks. He is becoming increasingly known for capturing these subtleties of reaction in his works which liberally utilize steel and bronze. In Wang’s works, the human figure is often the subject, and his figures tend to have long arms and legs. Wang declares “The slender limbs represent a kind of revolt for limitation” and adds that sculpture is now his main form of artistic expression. Shenping further declares that he wants audiences to be able to relate to his works from different perspectives so he prefers to compose his art in 3-D shapes. Metals are Wang’s favorite compositional materials because “they provide the best support structures and prevent any surprises from occurring” in his exhibitions.
In early 2011, Shenping moved to the United States and enrolled at the prestigious Academy of Art in San Francisco to pursue a Master’s in Fine Art. After graduating, he worked on the design and production of undersea theme creations for the “phytoplankton hole” of an indoor miniature golf course in San Francisco. Since then, Shenping has showcased his contemporary Chinese-themed sculptures and paintings in a wide variety of exhibitions around California where they have been prominently featured and have garnered impressive awards and high praise. He currently works as Art Director for Linwoods Auction in San Gabriel.
At a young age Judy Ying developed a great interest in music. Her formal musical education began at age 9 with piano and harmonica. With her abundant musical talent Judy soon became a conductor for her school band at age 11. As an adult, Judy received her B.S. degree in Foods/Nutrition from California State University, Los Angeles. Judy has always has a passion to learn more about her Chinese heritage. She has devoted much time learning Chinese folk dances and instruments, such as Guzheng, Pi-Pa and Yangquin. She has been a memberof the Los Angeles Spring Thunder Music Association since 1984 as a Yangquin player. Judy has also performed Guzheng with San Francisco Guzheng Music Society since 1987 and she has been with the Sound of China Guzheng Music Ensemble since 2011.
The free event will take place in the Library Community Room at 1115 El Centro Street. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and refreshments will be served.
The Community Room is only about a block away from the Gold Line Station and free parking will be available at the Mission-Meridian Parking Garage, located at 805 Meridian Avenue next to the Metro Gold Line Station.
