Cao Zhen caozhen0806@126.com TENG WENJIN, one of the creators of Shenzhen’s iconic Deng Xiaoping statue on top of the Lianhua Hill, opened his grand retrospective exhibition at Guofeng Art, exhibiting more than 400 sculptures and paintings and reflecting his long journey from an illiterate steel worker to a prolific master. The exhibited wooden, copper and ceramic sculptures and paintings were selected from his creations in the past 50 years. Most sculptures are animals with descriptions to express Teng’s thoughts on life and current affairs. “Many people knew my father due to the famous Deng Xiaoping statue. In addition to grand sculptures, he spent much of his time doing smaller sculptures because they are easily controlled and could express his ideas more freely,” said Teng Fei, son of Teng Wenjin. Teng Fei runs B10 Live in OCT-LOFT and is also a skilled painter. “My father lives a simple life after retirement, sculpting and painting every day for 20 years. He is totally concentrated on creation and has no time or desire to sell his works for money. He just creates one sculpture after another and has made more than 600 now. When he feels tired of making sculptures, he just paints,” said Teng Fei. Born in a village in Shandong Province in 1937, Teng Wenjin didn’t receive much education due to wars. At the age of 13, he went to Beijing and worked at Capital Steel. Teng later met an artist teaching him to paint and then he spent every spare moment painting. In 1958, since the government wanted more farmers and workers to get educated at university level, Teng sat the entrance exam and enrolled in the Central Academy of Fine Arts, studying sculpting for six years. In the third year in the academy, Teng’s classmate Fan Zeng (now a renowned painter and scholar) encouraged him to read ancient Chinese poems, prompting Teng to get up at 4 a.m. every day to read poems. “After four years upon graduation, I could recite 800 poems and grasped a solid knowledge of classical Chinese,” Teng recalled. Before moving to Shenzhen in the early 1980s, Teng worked in Guangzhou. The first sculpture he made for Shenzhen was of two giraffes — a mother nurturing its child, called “Taking Care Of.” He also made a sculpture of a procession of elephants, which represented people migrating to Shenzhen one after another. He said his techniques are inspired from those of the Han (202 B.C.-220 A.D.) and Tang (618-907) dynasties. As the founder and director of Shenzhen Sculpture Academy, Teng created the Deng Xiaoping statue together with three other artists from 1993 to 2000. The six-meter-tall statue was finally placed on the Lianhua Hill in 2000 in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the founding of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. Dates: Until May 31 Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., closed Mondays Venue: Guofeng Art, Wuhe Boulevard, Longgang District (龙岗区五和大道国风艺术馆) Metro: Line 5 to Wuhe Station (五和站), Exit A and then take a bus to Xinghe World Stop (星河World站) | 