Chinese Master Artist Long Gao will exhibit a group of his Chinese ink landscape paintings and "image seal cuttings" (stone prints) at The Painted Table Restaurant during the months of September and October. A reception for the artist will be held on First Thursday, February 1st from 5:00 to 6:30 PM. Hors d'oeuvres will be served courtesy of Chef Tim Kelley

Long Gao is a talent with very few peers. His reputation in China is legendary: he was the Vice Chairman of the Association of Artists under the Ministry of Radio Film and TV and Director of the Jiu-San Association of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Research in the Peoples Republic of China. Mr. Gao received widespread international recognition for his book of "Image Seal Cuttings", an art form based on the most ancient of Chinese art forms, Seal Cutting. This is a medium which marries visual art and literature; the thoughts of an artist are portrayed in both imagery and poetry. An image is carved in reverse into a stone and then printed, then a poem or line of text is added next to the picture. His "Seal Cuttings" are collected by the Beijing Library in China, the U.S. Library of Congress, the Seattle Public Library and many universities throughout the U.S.

Mr. Gao has developed the tradition of the Literati painting with a new twist. This ancient form combines poetry with landscape, a sort of image with a commentary, and was a staple medium for scholars for several centuries. Mr. Gao has fused some contemporary western color, bold shades of purples, pinks greens and reds, with abstract gestures to create an Abstract Expressionist Literati image,

Mr. Gao's talent is so broad, so refined that Jerome Silbergeld, Professor of Chinese Art History at the University of Washington (and author of two of the five books published in English on 20th Century Chinese artists) declares that "...of the Chinese artists who have come to the U.S. in the last fifteen years, some of whom represent the highest level found in China, ... I would rank Gao's work among the best."

For More Information, please call Jeffrey Moose, Director of Jeffrey Moose Gallery and Curator for the Alexis Hotel and Painted Table restaurant, at 206-467-6951.