There is a new artist being featured in the Tyler Hall Art Gallery this month: Zhinan Jiang, debuting his new collection, “Visitors.” The collection is inspired by people he has met and captures the beauty that is often overlooked in people. This collection features four different series: “Bicycle,” “Migration,” “Market” and “Figures.”

Jiang is a professor at Tsinghua University’s prestigious Academy of Art & Design. Last year, he was a visiting professor at Oswego State. He started “Visitors” in January, and all of his watercolor paintings in this collection were created during his time at Oswego.

Although the setting of his paintings are based around the world, the themes of this collection encompass the beauty of humans.

The largest series in this collection is “Figures,” consisting of 10 portraits of individuals Jiang has encountered. Each portrait has extreme detail and focuses more on the subject than the background.

Jiang believes that people are full of beauty and that their beauty is formed through their unique features, such as wrinkles, freckles and expressions.

In order to create these paintings, Jiang used photographic references and enhanced his painting to give off more emotion while mixing in his own feelings as well.

The subjects of “Visitors” are different people from Nepal, Xinjiang, and Syracuse. In 1999, Jiang was involved in a serious car accident and faced several life-threatening injuries. He received medical treatment in Syracuse and spent his time recovering there.

This is when he began to appreciate the community for their help in his time of need. While recovering Jiang realized his artistic ability was still intact. This gave him a new sense of gratitude and assurance. Within the same year, Jiang’s daughter was born.

These milestones gave him a new perspective on life, and it reflected in his art work. Jiang’s work became more detail-oriented, the focus shifting from beauty and optimism.

Before his accident, Jiang took a very realistic approach to his artwork. He typically painted landscapes and inanimate objects. This later changed to paintings with realistic proportion and texture, and more optimism than he previously incorporated. Jiang would change his tools and surfaces, exploring areas of art with which he was familiar.

Jiang’s paintings prompt a feeling of distance due to his use of color and space. At the same time, he creates intimacy with the subjects through his use of line and texture.

The way Jiang captures the subject’s emotions in the painting allows onlookers to empathize with them. His goal in his paintings is to capture the moment of genuine feeling in others’ faces with the use of high contrast and sharp details.

In the Tyler Hall Art Gallery, visitors can see the different techniques and styles Jiang used from piece to piece. Each painting in his series offers a sense of variety because they all have different subjects, but at the same time, they offer unity, as each piece fits perfectly into the series.

“Figure” offers a set of 10 portraits. Each piece is of a unique person, extruding different emotions, and painted using different brush strokes, textures and tones.

“Market” is a series of six pieces centered on different marketplace scenes in Syracuse. The collection as a whole had individual and community themes.

This collection is very stimulating, the pieces holding such intense emotions that one cannot help but feel connected to the strangers in the paintings. As visitors look at each face, one can begin to sympathize and identify with the subjects.

At first glance, it is difficult to understand how the painting is so simple, yet so detailed. He truly makes an ordinary person seem extraordinary through his work.

“Visitors” will be available to the public in the art gallery at Tyler Hall until Sept. 17.

Photo: Taylor Woods | The Oswegonian