Text/Photo: Glad
On October 28th, I participated in Yu Zhaomin's exhibition of Chinese paintings. The exhibition room is located on the 3rd floor of the Xiangyang District Cultural and Creative Art Center, and in a hall of more than 1,000 square meters, more than 80 paintings by him and his painter Wang Xiaoqing are displayed. Many people who came to the exhibition were full of interest, walking between galleries with albums in hand, or concentrating on details, or taking photos for retention, and the praise was endless.
Yu Zhaomin is a native of Hegang, or more precisely, a native of the Hegang mining area. He joined the work as a coal miner in the Yixin Coal Mine (formerly the Old New Mine), 3 years later as a trade union officer, and then as a section chief, working until he retired after 40 years. Yu Zhaomin liked to paint since he was a child, and began to study oil painting in the 1970s, teaching Zhang Yufeng, and many years later, he was taught by Lou Shibai, Zheng Yumin, Li Shaowen, Jiang Baolin and other teachers, and began to expand from oil painting to freehand, from characters to flowers and birds, and gradually became self-colored. His "Buddy" was selected for the National Coal Mine Chinese Painting Exhibition on the 60th Anniversary of the National Day of The People's Republic of China, "Mining Bright" won the second prize of the China Coal Mining Trade Union Fine Arts Exhibition, "Miner's Man" won the gold medal of the National Coal Mine Science and Technology Workers Calligraphy and Painting Exhibition, and "Late Autumn Fruit Ripening" was selected for the 10th National Exhibition of Outstanding Works of Contemporary Flower and Bird Painters in 2018. Yu Zhaomin is currently the chairman of the Hegang Artists Association, the vice chairman of the China Coal Mine Artists Association, the director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Artists Association, and a member of the CPPCC Municipal Committee.
Yu Zhaomin's paintings have both landscapes and figures, the paintings are pure, and the painting style is delicate and rough. The most profound impression left on me by Yu Zhaomin's paintings is to paint portraits of coal miners: there are individuals and groups in the genre, there are coal miners, artillery workers, and security inspectors in identities, there are tense labor and rest in the scenes, which can be described as different expressions, self-sufficiency, and unique in Hegang. Hegang is a city with a population of 600,000 people who thrived on coal, and the coal miners and their families, who were known as 300,000 at that time, have always been the main body of the city. Coal miners, especially underground mining workers, because of the particularity of the working environment, their real production and labor scenes are not easy to take pictures and videos, so that people who want to know know little, and Yu Zhaomin did it with a paintbrush. He paints miners, the biggest color is to show a "black" ecology: black face pet, black black clothing, black production site, each painting is vivid, jumping on the paper, showing the real tension, this should be his 3 years of coal miner personal experience and real feelings of the replay, otherwise it is difficult to do. He took names such as "Mine Backbone", "Buddy", "My Miner Brother" and other names for his miner portraits, with the intention of not forgetting the workers of that year, pitifying the miners and men for mining thousands of feet of underground light for the society, showing a deep affection for the miners. He had worked as a coal miner, and he knew that the laborers were the most glorious, their hands were dirty and red, and without the efforts of the miners, there would be no beauty in the lives of the people in the city. He used the allusion of the painting to hope that the whole society would respect the miners and show his sentiment of not forgetting his original intention. They all said that affection was priceless, and he used his heart.
I have been friends with Yu Zhaomin for nearly 20 years, and my common hobby is photography. Yu Zhaomin is good, kind-hearted, happy to help people, enthusiastic about public welfare undertakings, and has organized a large number of art activities for Xiangyang District, No. 18 Forest Farm and other units; Yu Zhaomin is diligent, more than a year old, and has a pen to work tirelessly, has a studio in the Cultural Palace in the mining area, has something to do, and has nothing to paint; Yu Zhaomin has a wide range of interests, loves photography, travel, and makes friends, and people in the art and photography circles like him and are willing to be with him.
There is a road in the book mountain, and diligence is the path; learning from the sea is endless, and using bitterness as a boat. It is hoped that Yu Zhaomin and his paintings will go further and become a big scene in the art world of Hegang.
Yu Zhaomin and his paintings (expansion pack)
The author and Yu Zhaomin took a photo in the studio
Lunch, eat bowls of instant noodles gladly taken
Did art publicity for Forest 18 gladly photographed
Spring Festival, send blessings to miners who have just ascended the well (expansion pack)
Painting, miners working underground
Paintings, miners working underground
Painting, off work
Painting, gas inspector
Painting, security inspector
Painting, Lotus gladly photographed
Painting exhibition, lotus flowers gladly photographed
3 strip paintings are gladly photographed
Gallery Painting Exhibition Gladly photographed
Tourists stop to admire the glad photo
Forest farm posters were taken gladly
Stacked works are gladly photographed
The studio is happy to shoot
The drawing table is gladly photographed
Pen gladly photographed
Color ink gladly photographed
Yu Zhaomin speaks at the opening ceremony of the exhibition (expansion pack)
Yu Zhaomin signs for fans (expansion pack)
The violin team happily supported the exhibition
Billboards (Expansion Packs)
Information sharing: Hegang Municipal Library, Hegang Evening News, Hegang Daily, Hegang Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, Hegang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Television and Tourism
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