About Us
Where Brushstrokes Weave a Thousand Dialogues
Xuejun Lu and Shu Yang, a couple bound by love and color, trace their origins to the creative pulse of China. Both graduated from a prestigious art academy in Shanghai, growing together under the influence of artistic tradition.
Xuejun’s oil and watercolor works unfold in rich layers, where acrylics and oil pastels collide to map emotional geographies. Shu Yang’s contemporary ink art breathes new life into millennia-old traditions—her xuan paper absorbing not just ink, but the silent fury of storms and the graceful drift of lotus blossoms.
Our Story
In 1999, our journey began at the intersection of art and academia—Xuejun, assisting his mentor at the Shanghai Theatre Academy in compiling a book on stage design and costume studies; Shu Yang, pursuing her graduate research in fashion history at Donghua University. Through collaboration, our conversations evolved from design theories to deeper artistic philosophies, unknowingly sketching the blueprint of our shared path.
Years later, that dialogue found new depth in the studio. At a Shanghai art residency in 2002, our paths merged once more—he was critiquing a student’s overworked canvas; she was teaching silk how to bleed. A debate about “emptiness” in Western abstraction versus ink’s liubai (留白) philosophy spilled into midnight tea and never truly ended. Instead, it became our shared language, shaping the way we create, converse, and exist as artists together.
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Art Education: The Foundation of All Things
From Shanghai to Vancouver, we have come to realize that art education is the foundation upon which everything in life is built. Beyond our personal creative pursuits, we are deeply committed to fostering a new kind of arts education for young minds—one that is both authentic and filled with inspiration. We believe in merging technical foundations with boundless creativity, a principle we continuously put into practice. By combining structure with imagination, we hope to offer the next generation a transformative and deeply enriching artistic experience.
Behind the Scenes at ARTSHU Studio
Fundamental Sketching