Traditional and Contemporary is collaborative exhibition by VisArts Studio Artist, Bertrand Mao, and his daughter, Lin-Lin Mao. The exhibit presents a selection of Bertrand Mao’s exquisitely executed traditional brush paintings and calligraphy alongside Lin-Lin Mao’s meticulously crafted mixed media works that incorporate contemporary landscape painting with bejeweled wire representations of natural forms.

About the Artist: Bertrand Mao

Bertrand Mao was born in the Jiangsu province of China and has studied and practiced Chinese calligraphy and painting for over sixty years. His work consists of the traditional Chinese art forms of Shan-Shui (“Mountain and Water”) painting, Chinese calligraphy, and the Four Gentlemen of Chinese brush painting – the plum blossom, chrysanthemum, bamboo, and orchid. Shan-Shui, also known as Chinese landscape painting in the western world, is considered the highest form of Chinese painting.

Mao has served as a government official in the line of education and cultural affairs, and has been a faculty member at the University of Maryland University College, American University, and Montgomery College. He’s currently a VisArts Studio Artist.

Mao has exhibited his artwork in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the U.S., Taiwan, India, China, and Russia. He has demonstrated and lectured on Chinese calligraphy and painting at universities, libraries, art centers, and government institutions, including the Sackler Museum and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. His artwork is in private collections and was selected by the U.S. Department of State for inclusion in the Embassy Program. He also has works on permanent display at the Potomac Library in Potomac, Md. and in the art collections of the Chinese Television Corporation and the Pacific Cultural Foundation in Taipei, Taiwan. Recently, Mao filmed a lecture and demonstration for the Centennial Celebration at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.

About the Artist: Lin-Lin Mao

Lin-Lin Mao is Bertrand Mao’s oldest child; she was born in Taiwan and grew up in Montgomery County, Md. An emerging artist, Mao received an MFA from Bath Spa University in London.

Several of Mao’s installations have been selected for temporary public art exhibitions in Seattle, Wash. Recently, she was asked to create a public art piece on a chain link fence in the East Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, Wash. The piece, which will be installed this summer and exhibited for six months, was commissioned by the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture in partnership with Seattle Public Utilities to enliven construction fences during the Ship Canal Water Quality Project.