His love of the American landscape, the fog-shrouded coast and all things romantic are informed and illuminated by his youth and education in China. Born in Shanghai the son of an art professor at the Art Academy of China, and educated at the People's Liberation Army Art Institute in Beijing, Mo was one of the few artists ever honored with shows at both the National Theater and the National Gallery in Beijing.

He only came to the U.S. in 1987 and fell in love with the beauty of the land. His boats and lighthouses and even trains appear out of a mist, like a vision taking shape. It gives his work a lyrical, haunting quality that was celebrated in exhibitions both here and in Asia.

Refusing to rest on his laurels, however, he also attended the Pratt Institute's School of Art and Design in New York, graduating in 1993 with a Master of Fine Arts. To his pleasure, he finds many of the same moods in America that he grew up with in China. "I guess it just goes to show," he says, "that our similarities are greater than our differences."

Mo Dafeng currently resides in Beijing.