Chinese Brush Work, Glass and Drawings on Display at Arts Barn Gallery
Posted 5/21/2012

The City of Gaithersburg presents Chinese brush painting and calligraphy by Nellie Chao and Kit-Keung Kan, the glass works of Eileen Martin, and drawings by Vian Shamounki Borchert and her students at the Arts Barn Gallery May 18 through July 15, 2012.  The gallery is located at 311 Kent Square Road in Gaithersburg, with viewing hours Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. An artists’ opening reception will be held on Tuesday, May 29 from 7 to 8:30 p.m.   

Nellie Chao was born in Shanghai, China and educated in Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States.  Her pursuit of Chinese brush painting and calligraphy began in the mid-1990s. Chao enjoys the freedom of painting with the po mo technique of splashing or pouring watercolor and ink on shikishi gold board.  She has won many prestigious awards, including the National Capital Orchid Society’s “Best Painting of the Show” and “First Place of Asian Brush Painting.”  She has exhibited in solo and group exhibits and demonstrates Chinese brush painting and calligraphy in workshops, seminars, schools, and nonprofit organizations, in DC, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and other areas.  Chao is a member of the Sumi-e Society of America, Inc. and Potomac Valley Watercolorists.

Kit-Keung Kan studied traditional Chinese painting under Leung Pak-Yu, Chow Yat Fung, and Kan Maytin, and studied calligraphy under Au Kin-Kung. He has held more than 30 solo exhibitions, including one at Taipei Fine Arts Museum, and participated in more than 80 group exhibitions in DC, New York, Louisville, Richmond, Taipei, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and other international cities.  He used traditional techniques to study rural landscapes of Hong Kong in the 1960s, and went through abstraction through simplification in the 1980s. Recently his painting is specialized on white water and waterfalls.  His treatment is realistic, but often borders on abstractionism.  Kan’s work is collected by many private and corporate collectors and is also found in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, Copelouzos Family Art Museum, Athens, Greece, Chung Chi College, Morningside College, the University of Hong Kong, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Embassy in Moscow.

Eileen Martin is skilled in all areas of the glass art trade beyond free-standing glasswork. Her stained glass restoration and repair work puts her fine-tuned expertise to use on existing structures. HGTV featured her commission work in an episode of the popular home and garden television show Curb Appeal. Although the bulk of her work is commissioned stained glass, she also does repair and restoration work, sometimes even on-site.  Martin's work spans cold, warm and hot glass forming techniques and includes commissioned stained glass for churches, residences and businesses, as well as dishware, interior panels, jewelry and sculptural art, all reflecting the range of materials and techniques available to a glass artist. After taking classes with Tony Glander, a glass artist currently in residence at the Arts Barn, she decided on a career change and opened her own studio/gallery in a barn in Olney.

Vian Shamounki Borchert is a professional artist and a graduate of The Corcoran College of Art and Design, Washington, DC and has a Master Web Design degree. She is an art educator and a teacher who helps students of all levels explore their inner creative voice. Borchert’s expressionistic and abstracted art illustrates a poetic mood and a thoughtful journey in the world of painting. Her work is acquired internationally and locally in places such as The National Gallery of Art in Amman, Jordan and The Jerusalem Fund Gallery in Washington, DC.  Borchert has taken part in many group and solo shows at the Kentlands Mansion Gallery, The Yellow Barn Studio & Gallery, Strathmore Mansion, Women's Club of Chevy Chase, Cairo Amman Bank Art Gallery, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The International Trade Center, The French Cultural Center in Amman, Jordan, The BlackRock Center of the Arts, and others. She has many years of experience teaching art classes in acrylic, watercolor and drawing.

Please note that most artwork is for sale and all images are copyrighted by the artist.  For more information please contact Andi Rosati at 301-258-6394, email arosati@gaithersburgmd.gov or visit the Arts Barn online at www.gaithersburgmd.gov/artsbarn.