Born in Beijing in 1955, Tian Liming served in the army before enrolling in the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1982 where he continues to teach today. Tian currently serves on the Committee of the Chinese Artists Association and as an honorary professor of the Repin Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg.

With an idiosyncratic sensitivity for light and colour, the ink art of Tian Liming emanates the ease, serenity, and grace distinctive of Chinese paintings while enlivening the century-old scholarly tradition with a contemporary outlook. He has established himself as a painter of modern life: his restrained and flattened figures are depicted in soft, pastel-like colours and transparent washes, shroude...