| ISPA Distinguished Artist Award Recipient - Shen Wei |
ISPA Award Recipient Shen Wei2022 Distinguished Artist Award Recipient As a Chinese-born American artist who is hailed as “one of the great artists of our time” (The Washington Times), Shen Wei carries the multiple roles of choreographer, painter, and director, and is internationally renowned for the breadth and scope of his artistic vision. Shen was trained from youth in the rigorous practice of Chinese opera performance, traditional Chinese ink painting and calligraphy, and was a performer with the Hunan State Xian Opera Company from 1984 to 1989. In 1989, he began modern dance training at the American Dance Festival’s (ADF) program at the Guangdong Dance Academy in China. In 1991, Shen became the founding member of Guangdong Modern Dance Company in China. Upon receipt of a fellowship in 1995, he started his study in New York and was invited to create works at the American Dance Festival (ADF). After founding Shen Wei Dance Arts (SWDA) in 2000 which quickly entered the international touring circuit, performing at premier festivals and venues worldwide, Shen has received numerous commissions including multiple commissions from the American Dance Festival, Het Muziektheater, the Lincoln Center Festival and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as well as from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Park Avenue Armory, Hong Kong’s New Vision Arts Festival and Edinburgh International Festival. Shen Wei was the lead choreographer for the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He has also created dances for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, and choreographed the Rome Opera’s production of Rossini’s Moise et Pharaon, conducted by Ricardo Muti. In 2013, Shen was commissioned to create a new work for the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. He also choreographed, directed and designed a production of Carmina Burana for the chorus, orchestra, and ballet of Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy, with his company performing in leading roles. Shen has entered into a new dialogue in a series of performative installations and site-specific works that have been presented at international leading museums and galleries including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, North Carolina Museum of Art, Collezione Maramotti in Italy, Tucson Museum of Art, Rockbund Museum of Art in Shanghai, Guggenheim Museum, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Chambers Fine Art Gallery in New York, Crow Collection of Asian Art (Dallas), Hong Kong Cultural Centre and the Forum at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. In 2014, His first major visual arts debut Shen Wei: In Black, White and Gray featuring eleven of his paintings was shown at the Museum of Art and Design of Miami Dade College (MDC) during Art Basel/Miami Beach. In 2015, he participated in a group show Performance & Remnant at London’s Fine Art Society. Shen Wei: Dance Strokes, an exhibition of his paintings with site-specific performances, opened at Asia Society Hong Kong Center in 2016 during Art Basel/Hong Kong. Two years later, Shen was invited to have his debut solo exhibition Shen Wei: Exploring The Unknown presented in Shanghai at the Power Station of Art, China’s first contemporary art museum. Shen Wei has earned numerous awards and accolades in his career, including MacArthur “Genius” Award (2007), the US Artists Fellow award (2007) and John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2007). Other accolades include Nijinsky Emerging Choreographer Award (2004), Australia’s Helpmann Award (2005), Les Étoiles de Ballet Award (2006), Audi-China Artist of the Year Award (2012), Algur H. Meadows Prize (2012), GQ –China Artist of the Year Award (2013) and the Chinese Innovator Award from The Wall Street Journal-China (2013). Shen was honored with the Asian Cultural Council’s John D. Rockefeller 3rd Award in 2017. Most recently, Shen received the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award (2020) for lifetime achievement by The American Dance Festival (ADF). In 2021, Shen’s avant-garde multimedia production Integrate premiered as part of the Shanghai International Arts Festival’s Artra arm at the West Bund Dome. |
