Inspired by religion

Showing at the Delma Corner in the Cultural Foundation is an exhibition of paintings by Ibrahim Cheng Quansheng, a talented and accomplished artist, who has travelled from Beijing, China, to show selected works of his art.

The paintings in oil on canvas are lustrous and vibrant and paper cut and pasting, using high quality Chinese paper, are meticulously done. Traditional Chinese brush stroke paintings, an expression of Islamic culture intertwined with traditional Chinese painting, have been made into wall hangings.

Cheng Quansheng was born into a Muslim family in China in 1964. Strongly influenced by Islamic doctrine, he began painting at the age of 12. When he was 21, he created a large mural painting, The Mosque of Madinah. After graduating from the Central Academy of Fine Arts with a BA, Ibrahim worked as Art Editor in the Beijing-based China's Overseas Press which enabled him to show his understanding of the Islamic culture which was reflected through his paintings.

In 1994, at the age of 30, Cheng Quansheng was listed as one of the celebrities of the Advanced Professionals of Modern China. Two years later he transferred to the Beijing-based China Institute of Art Research and worked as a professional artist. In 1997, he held a successful painting exhibition at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Beijing, which was attended by more than 30 delegates from Islamic countries who held his work in high esteem. This led to the opening of the Sino-Arabian Art Studio of which Cheng Quansheng is now the manager.

It had been Cheng Quansheng's childhood ambition to visit the Middle East, which was finally fulfilled last year when the artist visited Makkah in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Impressed by the kindness, warmth and hospitality of the Arab people, the visit inspired the artist to develop and cement a friendship between the Chinese and Arab Muslims. There are approximately 20 million Muslims in China and 30,000 mosques.

The artist is a deeply religious man, and his devotion can be seen in his paintings. His next ambition is to paint murals to depict the spirit of the Islamic culture wherever possible.