JunCheng Liu, an associate professor of fine arts at Franklin and Marshall College since 1997, is displaying his artwork in the Lyet Gallery of Leffler Chapel at Elizabethtown College throughout mid-October. At F&M, he teaches drawing and painting, as well as Chinese ink painting.
JunCheng has participated in art shows in both the United States and China. The Elizabethtown College Fine and Performing Arts Department is sponsoring his on-campus exhibit.
JunCheng contacted Professor Milton Friedly about displaying his work at E-town. The Fine Arts committee approved his request in order to bring some outside work to the College and broaden its educational and artistic offerings.
Friedly hopes this will allow students, particularly majors in the Fine and Performing Arts disciplines, to further their education outside of the classroom.
“Your mind is like a parachute,” Friedly said. “It only works if it’s open.”
He believes that exposing students to JunCheng’s personal artistic style will help challenge them to decide for themselves whether or not something is art, focusing on arrangement, composition, and aesthetics.
“Sometimes very ugly things can be beautiful,” he said, adding that it will be up to visitors to form their own interpretations about this and any artwork displayed on campus over the course of this academic year.
“Your mind is like a parachute; it only works if it’s open.”
JunCheng said that he always searches for opportunities to exhibit his work as part of his research in his position as an associate professor. He works with Chinese brush ink painting and trompe l’oeil painting and has examples of both on display in the Lyet gallery. The brush painting stems from his earlier studies in China, where he received a master’s of fine arts in oil painting from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts. JunCheng also looks to the Chinese tradition for inspiration in this style of painting. Trompe l’oeil, a hyper-realistic, photographic style of painting, captured his interest when he came to study in the United States.
JunCheng explained that an individualistic point of view never occurred to him while growing up and studying in China during the Cultural Revolution. Because of this, he decided to come to America to learn more about Western artistic conventions and styles. More specifically, a Robert Rauschenberg pop art exhibit in Beijing prompted JunCheng to travel to America to continue his studies. He received a second MFA from Texas A&M University – Commerce in order to teach in the Unite States.
“In China, you have this universal standard where something is right and everybody will agree, and otherwise it will be questionable” he said. “But [Rauschenberg] really tries to share his view with others. You don’t necessarily have to agree with him, but that’s his point of view.”
His goal is to strike up a dialogue with audiences through the visual medium of his artwork.
“Once you see the images, you can really connect and have some kind of convergence, even if you don’t see the results,” he said.
JunCheng Liu’s exhibition opened with a reception on Sept. 10. The show runs through October 19. The Lyet Gallery will be open to the community to view his work from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.