Artist Biography:
Born in Jinzhou, China, Leilei Chen earned her B.A. in Painting from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in China. She got her first M.F.A master degree from China’s prestigious Tsinghua University in 2007. Prior to coming to the US, she was an Assistant Professors of Art at Liaoning University of Technology, teaching undergraduate courses in Drawing and Oil Painting. Leilei was awarded for the three consecutive years from 2008-2011, the Distinguished Assistant Professor Award for teaching at Liaoning University of Technology. She has presented lectures and taught workshops on topics from theory and methods of traditional Chinese Art, modernist styles and types of development of visual arts in China, to contemporary photography at the various universities and colleges. Currently, she is making work and teaching at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan, US. Leilei often collaborates with Beibei Chen, exhibiting their works nationally and internationally, in shows including No-Boundaries International Youth Art Exhibition’ at United Nations Headquarters, China’s 60th Anniversary of the Founding of Exhibition, and Olympic Landscape Sculpture International Exhibition. One of their paintings, Youth has won the third prize for the national painting competition in 2009. The duo also received ArtPrize Special Recognition in 2016. Leilei’s creative research also includes the writing and production of many edited books. She was the co-author of the book, Olympics and sculpture, which has been exhibited and permanently collected by the National Museum of China and National Library of China. As international artist, her areas of research interest include Chinese traditional art, Western modern art, history and aesthetics of Chinese art.