The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland presents an exhibition of works by Nobel Prize in Literature winner Gao Xingjian. This exhibition specifically focuses on his ink-and-brush paintings and films. In conjunction with the exhibition, The Art Gallery will host a reception celebrating Mr. Gao and his multifaceted artistic career on December 4, 2013 from 5:00pm to 7:30pm. Exhibition curator and UMD professor, Dr. Jason Kuo, along with Mr. Gao, will give an informal talk and participate in a Q&A beginning at 6:15pm in the gallery.

Born in 1940, in Jiangxi province in eastern China, Gao Xingjian is the first Chinese recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Mr. Gao's interest in theater, writing, and all-things-creative was instilled at an early age by his mother, an amateur actress. He began painting at age ten after his uncle gave him a notebook for his birthday. Mr. Gao describes it as: “just white pages, no grid and no lines,” and that it was in this book where he first began writing and drawing simultaneously. Throughout the course of Gao Xingjian's prolific career, he has had nearly thirty international exhibitions of his ink paintings and, also, illustrates all of the covers of his books.