Chen Xi was born in Shanghai in 1966, and moved to Austria in 1993. Chen Xi was trained in mastering traditional ink painting skills and realistic painting techniques during his university years at the elite Art Academy of Shanghai. He continued his studies at Academy of Fine Arts in Austria in 1995. Chen’s work displays a rare balance between Chinese technique and sensibilities combined with European theory and insights. Based on the ideal of mastering techniques, which he was taught in his early Shanghai years, each of his works is hand drawn without a prior sketch. The abstraction he brings is a legacy of his long European art education.