Featured Artist

Stone Shi (aka. Chun Shi, Schutze) was born in Nanjing China in 1963. As a boy, he enjoyed painting and drawing and would travel far to other cities to take professional lessons from art teachers and professors at the art academy. Stone came to the United States in 1987. Here in New York, he perfected his skill and broadened his horizon via a scholarship at Art Studio Club. He attended his first group show at Harrison Public Library of Westchester county and exhibited at Sabrina Fung Gallery at Manhattan in 1988.

Stone dived right into the East Village art scene and heavy metal music when he lived on Bleecker Street. He developed mixed medium oil paintings reflecting social phenomena such as the rise of aids and homosexuality. From 1988-1992, Stone attended many group shows at avant-garde galleries in Manhattan, such as Kenkeleba Gallery, the Clocktower, Alternative Museum, and White Columns. Since 1993, Stone's artworks had exhibited internationally in Germany, Scotland, Taiwan, and China.

Stone had two solo shows in Taipei Taiwan in 1994. He became a household name through a series of award-winning beverage commercials that portrayed him as the trendsetter in art and heavy metal music. He became the host for MTV Asia's 24 hours Mandarin Channel.

Stone spent the next 16 years becoming an entrepreneur in developing online media platforms for companies like China Mobile and China Telecom. In 16 years, Stone witnessed the political and social change impacted by the economic development in China. He incorporated his experience doing business in China with privileged officials and the elite in his new paintings. Further, He developed a new language and style in art: oil cubes similar to mosaics.

Using the new language in art, Stone started an eight-year-long "Currency War" project to paint Chinese and US currency. Following the success of the currency war series, he further developed his style and painted iconic symbols such as the Cross, Buddha, Marilyn Monroe, Miles Davis, and even Taylor Swift. Using his time-consuming techniques and rich knowledge of color, he interpreted Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night and Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Since 2010, Stone has dedicated himself to the "oil cube" painting that he developed. He spent most of his time in his studio painting cube by cube on each of his artwork that consists of tens of thousands of shades of cubes. Stone believes that a true artist must discover his unique style that nobody else would use in fine art. Stone poured out his appreciation of life and love on each of his paintings and labored himself through the painstaking process of cube painting, which made his beautiful artworks stand out anywhere regardless of a gallery, showroom, or collector's private home.

Buddha Lotus, Beijing Poly Fall Auction 2018 Show, China Agriculture Exhibition Center (中国农展馆), Beijing ChinaDec. 2018

(un）SCENE Art Show” NYC April 2015

Total Talent International” Show at BELSKIE Museum of Feb. 2014

The First Contemporary Art Weibo Exhibition” Songzhuang Art Center (宋庄美术馆), Beijing ChinaDec. 2013

Art China 2012”, China Agriculture Exhibition Center (中国农展馆), Beijing China Nov. 2012

Art Is Capital”, East Asia Bank Beijing Center (东亚银行北京分行), Beijing China Sep. 2012

Shi Cun Solo Show, IT Park Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan, 1994

Shi Cun Solo Show, Up Gallery, Kaoshuing, Taiwan, 1994

Group show, Maclaurin Art Gallery, Ayr, Scotland, 1993

Group show, Gottingen City Hall, Gottingen, Germany, 1993

Group show, Grimm-Museum, Kassel, Germany, 1993

Group show, Schwedt Gallery, Oder, Germany, 1992

Group Show, Rosenthal Theater, Selb, Germany, 1992

Gallerie IX Atelier, Berlin, Germany, 1992

Open Window”, New York City, 1991

"Positive Actions: Aids Timeline”, The Clocktower, NYC, 1990

"Dia De Los Muertos", Alternative Museum, Manhattan, 1990

Wellspring Group Show, Kenkeleba Gallery, NYC, 1989

Art Studio Group Show, Phoenix Gallery, NYC, 1989

Sabrina Fung Gallery, New York, NY, 1988

The Art of Money, Sinovision "New York Lounge" Aug. 2019

He Created A Unique Language For Art, the Chinese Wall Street News AgencyOct. 2019

Stone’s Mona Lisa, published by New York New Century Press & Long Publishing CorpOct. 2019

2018 Auction Collection of Asian Contemporary Artworks, “Buddha Lotus” 2018, Beijing ChinaDec. 2018

Meniscus Magazine “Artist Stone’s “One Buck” sculpture a larger-than-life spectacle” May 2018

Sohu.com “He’s the Wildest Artist”, Beijing ChinaDec. 2017

China Press “Shi Cun’s Painting Being Auctioned by Poly”, Dec. 2017

Poly Auction Modern and Contemporary Arts Magazine, “Buddha Lotus”, Dec. 2017, Beijing China

2018 Auction Collection of Asian Contemporary Artworks, “Buddha Lotus” 2018, Beijing China, Dec. 2018

Ya Chuang Artron.net “The Art of Shi Cun Kuai”, Nov. 6, 2017, Beijing China

China Press, “Creating Legend - Shi Chun and His Oil Mosaic Artwork”, April 2017, New York, April 2017

Sinovision “Hello New Yorker - Shi Cun”, March 24, 2017, New York

China Central Television Networks (CCTV) Channel 4 News, “The Surprising “One Buck” Trailer Shows Up On the Streets of New York”, Jan. 2016

PDC Design, 31 Artists and Designers From 18 Cities Around the World, 2015, p190-p198

China Press, "Gong Xi Fa Cai” Solo Art Exhibition Opens in Chelsea, Feb. 2013

Sinovision TV news, American Chinese Artist Shi Chun’s “Gong Xi Fa Cai” Art exhibition opens on Chinese New Year, 2013, New York, Feb. 2013

TV Documentary "Ren Min Bi”, Episode 1, 2013, Shanghai Television Station, 2013

LA Times, Company Town: MTV Hopes Chinese Will Be Staring - Television: A funky, cross-cultural host leads music channel into battle for the Mandarin-speaking market, 1994, US1994

People Magazine, Legendary People, center page, 1994, Taiwan 1994

Zhi Ying Magazine, Cover, Sep. 1994, Taiwan1994

DC Art Magazine, Shi Cun - The Restless Soul, Aug.1994, Taiwan1994

Diana Magazine, Shi Chun’s Home – Indulging His Imagination, 1993, Taiwan

China Times, The Storm of Shi Chun Raids Taiwan, 1993

Liberty Times, Aug. 5, 1993, Taiwan

Union Daily, 1993, Taiwan

For the very first time, Stone is in the process of transforming an ancient Chinese painting “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” into a series of 16 modern oil cube paintings using his signature visual language. He plans to spend the next five years completing the series.

Regarded as the "China's Mona Lisa, Along the River During the Qingming Festival, also known by its Chinese name as the Qingming Shanghe Tu (清明上河圖), is a painting by the Song dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan (1085–1145). The painting is considered to be the most renowned work among all Chinese paintings.

“One Buck is the foundation of American society. From the founding fathers and the conspiracy Illuminati to the failing economy, it reflects this.”

Stone believes that New York is the best art museum without walls. He bought a trailer, modified it, and installed the three-dimensional dollar on it, turning it into a mobile art gallery that toured on the streets of New York.

Wherever Stone’s "One Buck" went, a crowd surrounded it. Just as Stone told a Chinese reporter: "Since ONE BUCK went out on the streets, I am not able to tell its future, and nor am I able to tell my own future. Maybe we really do not know the future of our lives; therefore, we are just living, we are going, not knowing whether forward or backward, upward or downward, we are just on the road, on the road of New York, on the road of life, on the road destined by our fate. However, only in the best street museum of New York can art break through the form and the walls to exist freely, to be appreciated by all. This is the aim of my painting and also the ultimate goal of the art I am pursuing.”