Tai Shan Schierenberg Memling, 2026

It is odd to be an Asian painter in the Western realist tradition but to rarely see an example of oneself represented in the great canon either as creator or subject. I've met some exceptional artists who are dealing with this in their work. The sitter had this wonderful rocker and medieval haircut that made me think of Hans Memling's (1430-1494) fantastic portraits. We devised a pose to exploit everything from the sitter's Chinese identity, denoted by his white shirt, to his contemporaneous leather jacket so the portrait would transcend eras, race, and religion. -Tai Shan Schierenberg, 2026