Being raised in a celebrated ceramic-making hub like Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, allowed Zhu Legeng to be nurtured, since childhood, by the diversity and dynamics of the city's long-standing handicraft traditions.
The essence of this craftsmanship has been decorating interior and exterior environments, at home and around the world, with objects of supreme excellence, even catering to the imperial court in ancient times.While facing the changing aesthetics brought by urbanization, Zhu has been tasked with turning his expertise in traditional techniques to serving the needs of modern society, "a common foundational issue for all Chinese artists living in a time of reforms", Fan says.Zhu says that, since the 1990s, he has focused his work on enriching the presentation of ceramics — not just as a material for making decorative objects, but as a manifestation of clay and fire, of beautiful textures and to dominate a space. He calls his approach the art of environment ceramics.Triple Reflections of Flowers, for example, is a work on display in which dozens of qinghua cobalt blue ceramic tiles are hung in midair and reflected in mirrors that form three walls and the floor.▲Heavenly Horse, by Zhu. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Reporter: Lin Qi