王强 WangQiang 1963 born in Jiamusi, Hei Longjiang province is currently on display at the 1 Art Bank Gallery located in the Westin Hotel. WangQiang graduated in 1991 from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and has been creating art with fashion since his first solo art exhibition in the Beijing Art Museum in 1990. Combining art and fashion by using paint on fabric, or hanging clothing installations Le Divan style, are a way to bridge into the fashion world. Who would not love a hand painted Mao jacket featuring the man himself?

The paintings are done on the inside of the jackets with smiling Mao. The paintings look like sketches in black and white, stark against the moss green of the jacket with splashes of fucia squares around Mao.

"Wang Qiang's Clothes: Magnificent Turn on the Racetrack uses the history of clothing styles in Shanghai as a point of focus to reveal differences in the culture of fashion across different villages and countries. The history of clothing is in and of itself a miniaturization of a nation s history. The unique style of dress found throughout Shanghai's history also represents the history of cultural change of this immigrant city. This work describes Shanghai s unique past and present and its lively future by juxtaposing Shanghai s colorful architecture and the international influence on its architecture in the wake of China s reforms against its constantly changing fashions. The works are displayed in the stair well of the northern building of the former racetrack, helping them better represent the grandness of the city of Shanghai."----Zhang Qing