Born in Guangzhou in 1978, Wen spent four years studying at the Affiliated Middle School of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art (GAFA). She continued studying graphic design at the GAFA in 1998.
While still in her first year in college, she started a graphic design company with her brother in Guangzhou in 1998. She remains a shareholder of the company today.
When she graduated from the GAFA in 2002, she originally planned to pursue further studies in the United States. But after receiving three months’ training in France, she chose to go to Paris at the end of that year.
After working part-time as a graphic designer in a publishing house in Paris for one and a half years, she decided to sit an entrance examination for Christie’s Education in Paris in September 2005.
Founded in 1978, Christie’s Education is the educational arm of the world’s major auction house, which provides high quality education in art history, connoisseurship and the art market through hands-on experience.
Among the 30 students from all over the world who were admitted into Christie’s Education that year, she was the only one — and also the first — from the Chinese mainland.
After one year of intensive training and study, Wen obtained a diploma in art history from the Renaissance to the 1940’s from Christie’s college in July 2006.
“The biggest benefit I reaped from my study at Christie’s Education was that I had cultivated a critical eye for judging a work of art,” she said.
While studying at Christie’s, Wen visited the Louvre more than 100 times to examine various collections there.
“At the beginning of my study, I was often required to stay and examine a work of art for at least three hours before writing a report,” she said.
“But now it takes me only 10 minutes to judge a work of art and another 20 minutes to write a critical review on the beauty and quality of the work,” she said.
After graduating from Christie’s Education in July 2006, Wen worked as an intern at Christie’s France, in Paris for three months and then in the Loft Gallery for one year before returning to Guangzhou in October 2007.
“On my first day at Christie’s Education, I began to consider going back to South China and opening my own gallery here,” she said.
With the help of her brother, her dream finally came true in Guangzhou in December 2007. And with the help of the Art de Vivre in the SZSA, she opened her gallery in Shenzhen last month.