  Artist Biography Xiaosheng Bi was born in 1963 in Xi’an, the ancient capital city of many dynasties in the history of China. He started making pottery as a teenager: Isn’t it in early human nature to play with mud and clay? Only that my love for clay lasts; it is so intimate and dear to me.Bi attended the Xi’an Secondary School of Light Industry where he received his diploma in Commercial Art and Graphic Design in 1981. On graduation he was appointed a designer with the Xi’an Art and Craft Research Institute. He resigned this post when he was accepted to the Department of Ceramic Art and Design of the Beijing Central Academy of Arts and Design in 1985. Upon receipt of his BFA degree in 1989, Bi was hired by the department to serve as an instructor while he simultaneously worked on a MFA degree that he received in 1995. Between 1990 and 1997 when he emigrated to the United States, Bi took part in many exhibitions within China and in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. His works have been pictured and his essays about his art have appeared in several publications including Decorative Arts, Ceramic Art (Taiwan) and The Art of Fire and Earth (Hong Kong). Articles featuring Xiaosheng Bi and his art have also appeared in China Daily and the overseas edition of Peoples Daily. Bi uses bone-ash clay that contains 40 to 50 per cent bone ash to create his delicate and fragile porcelain pots. The other essential element of his ceramics is his use of non-ferrous, salt-like metallic pigments. According to Bi, Salt-like pigments are seldom used in ceramics because they are extremely hard to control; when painted on pottery they are invisible and exhibit color only after they have been fired in the kiln. Using these pigments on bone china, however, will yield aesthetic effects well worth the technical difficulty. These pigments complement the translucency, glassiness and crystalline shine of porcelain and their colors appear clearer and brighter against the pure white walls of porcelain vessels. One highly-prized effect of this combination of materials is that the calcium phosphate in bone porcelain will react with the cobalt in the pigments and produce a striking violet. Under most other conditions, cobalt appears as a flat blue on ceramics, such as the blue and white ware commonly associated with Jingdezhen, China. Most importantly, these pigments are water-soluble. Stains and slips commonly used in ceramics are not water-soluble and merely sit on a pot’s outer surface. In contrast, salt-like pigments are absorbed into the clay. After repeated washes, the colors overflow the contour lines and create misty halos of watercolor and ink-wash painting. In some areas, pigments painted on a vessel’s exterior will completely penetrate the clay and seep through the walls of the pot to create a shadow image of the painted pattern on the vessel’s interior. Xiaosheng Bi was interviewed in Evanston, Illinois where he formerly had his studio with a group of artists at the Midwest Clay Guild. He has since moved to a suburb of Washington, D.C. When asked to comment on the artistic concept of his work, he replied: In terms of artistic thought, I pursue traditional Chinese aesthetic ideals. I strive to express stillness and tranquility through my work by using the brushwork of Chinese painting to invoke a certain aesthetic mood; it is a quietude leading to a clearer, more penetrating view of the world. I hope that through my work, a viewer can cast away the vexations of everyday life and enter the calm and quiet oasis of nature. Work Available For Sale |
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