Collection: Zu Ming Ho Artist Biography and Art Gallery Collection

"Richard" Zu Ming Ho was born 1949 in China into a remarkable family that had already produced several artists. While still in elementary school he began studying both Chinese and Western-style figure sketching, watercolors, and landscapes. At an early age he had a true appreciation for art and was considered to be highly gifted in several different media and styles, including classic Chinese painting styles. Zu Ming Ho was also greatly influenced by the French Impressionists masters such as Degas, Manet and Renoir, as well as American masters Sargent and Whistler. Like many members of the emerging Yunnan School, he had hoped to enlighten the Chinese people with his uniquely westernized versions of traditional Chinese themes. But it his last nod toward Western Art that landed him in a forced labor camp in 1966. For the next ten years the Communist regime tried to break Ho’s spirit by depriving him of his art. But Zu Ming Ho kept his dream alive by visualizing paintings and memorizing images and hoping that, someday, he would be able to put them on canvas or paper.

Zu Ming Ho resumed his formal education after the cultural revolution ended in 1976. In the years that followed, he graduated with honors from the Shanghai Drama Institute Department of Fine Arts, majoring in oil painting. Ho’s dream was further realized n October 1987, Ho was accepted to an American university and he immigrated to the United States. Free to follow his talent, he began creating pieces rich with meaning and elegance. Ho has created his own style some say is “as fine as a poem, not merely a picture. Today he combines a gentle touch with vivid color to produce works that uniquely celebrate the grace of the human body and the intimacy of our relationship with nature and the universe. Zu Ming Ho, has recently moved back to China where he is an art professor at a major university. He has served a term as the Vice Chancellor of Jia Zhou Institute of Paintings. Throughout his work we see his uniquely westernized versions of very traditional Chinese themes.

Zu Ming Ho is a gifted and widely recognized artist who has created amazing masterpieces by exploring the heart of Ancient China through a myriad of mystical images. Intricate lines and rich colors speak of his true craftsmanship and loving detai He creates very cultured and meaningful pieces that continue to gain him great recognition around the world. His combination of soft brush strokes and vibrant colors are often the reason his technique is referred to as poetic.