East-West Connects: Alumnus Wei Dong
Showing through January, 2017
Wei Dong (M.F.A. ’88/A), who says he is the first Chinese national to study art at Virginia Commonwealth University, earned a bachelor’s degree in Beijing. China was opening its doors to the west and Dong applied to U.S. schools for graduate study. Drawn to VCU’s School of the Arts because of the strength of its program and the warmth of its personal outreach to him–particularly through professor Ringo Yung–Dong arrived in Richmond in 1986. Penniless and without any friends or connections in the states, he soon made a home here.
“From the minute Wei Dong arrived, he has been an inspiration to all who meet him,” recalls Terrell Luck Harrigan (BFA ’87/Arts). “Wei’s deep sensitivity to his environment, his design, his artwork, his teaching, his friendships and family have been distinguishing trademarks. We are fortunate he chose VCU. He has such a strong loyalty and love of VCU and Richmond.”
In 1987, his first Richmond solo show merged classical Chinese and Western practices. He went onto to lead a full life as an artist and educator.
According to his university web biography: He is the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in the Department of Design Studies at the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In his teaching, he specializes in design visualization and Asian design. Design visualization refers to the use of both manual and digital media to visualize buildings and their associated interior and exterior spaces. Several methods and applications are included in design visualization such as animation, modeling and simulation, and image generation and manipulation.
Professor Dong is increasingly recognized as a leader in the integration of digital media into the environmental design process to stimulate creativity and improve visualization skills. He has published two books on the subject and he is working on a third.
He has exhibited worldwide.
(Anthony Langley (B.S.’16/MC) contributed to this blog post. Langley’s article about Wei Dong appears in the Winter alumni magazine.)
Categories Alumni Work