Los Angeles artist Qi Qun Pan has devoted the past three decades of his life to furthering his vision as an abstract artist. Pan has combined artistic styles from both the East and West and in doing so; he has developed his own style of abstract expressionism that has propelled him to the top of the contemporary art scene. Pan hails from China, yet his art education took place in the United States at places such as the Otis Institute of Art and Design in Los Angeles, and West Los Angeles College. Pan has a superb understanding of the abstract expressionist painters of the West, especially of those hailing from the United States. Pan has always shown interest in Big field, Hard Edge and other experimental art movements, which were popular in the late 1950's and early 1960's. In the early 1980's, Pan began his search for his own artistic voice by developing his own color expression, use of collage, overlapping color patterns and other visual elements. Citing the first generation of abstract expressionist painters as influences, Pan also admired the work of artists such as Joan Mitchell, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Jennifer Durrant, Emilio Vedova, Jack Twokov, Robert Natkin and Gerhard Richter.
Pan comes from humble beginnings in China and has received no formal art training, yet his country's culture has had a profound influence on his art. After a cultural revolution shut down the education system in China, Pan was forced to enter a labor camp. In this camp, Pan endured long hours of work and no days off which led him to harness a strength and work ethic that he still carries with him today. He began painting and Chinese history and literature have also played an integral role in how Pan has developed throughout his career. Chinese calligraphy had a consistent, yet subtle appearance in many of his paintings. Using his unique artistic skills and his intense desire to continuously evolve as a painter; Pan utilizes modern color pigments and regards the materials that he uses as a major tool of free expression. Pan also believes that fine art has to be produced by quality materials. Qi Qun Pan uses vibrant colors, rich textures and opaque pigments to bring his canvases to life. The precision-like blending of colors that you see in Pan's artwork is based on his skillful handling of a variety of mediums that ultimately become his unique abstract expressionistic style. Pan also has a great interest in Chinese traditional ink painting, which he considers a style to have achieved a "perfect level of abstract expressionism," while retaining it's artistic value. In the spring of 2001, Pan introduced to the art world to his brand new Shangri- La Stone sculptures. After selling out his first two sculpture shows, it was quite evident that Pan was continuing to push himself and his art, much to the praise of the art world.