Artist Biography

From classic jade carving to modern animation character,
From the softest foam to the hardest stone,
From fine art collection to commercial display,
From as small as half an inch to larger than 20 feet sculptures,
His magnificent art works told us all the stories;
His exquisite carving gave old Tucson a face-lifting changes;
His innovative project was in the centennial celebration of Arizona; and
His achievements are evidenced by the countless awards and contracts.

Carving,                                            Drawing,
Painting,                                           Designing,
Sculpting,                                         Woodworking,
Cartooning,                                      Crafts, Fine arts,
Stage setting,                                  Ice and butter sculpting, …
His experiences extend through all areas of visual arts.

The artist, Adam W. Xu has been engaged in visual art work for over 30 years. Born with a gifted art talent, 3D imagination, and the love of handmade artwork, he was recruited by a special art school at young age, started with complicated jade carving at an early stage in his art career. His talents allowed him enter the College of Academy of Arts for advanced training in design. He gained experience in making human statues in Shanghai University of Arts, and taught sculpture in art school. He has mastered a variety of sculpting techniques using different materials and has made different sized sculptures, ranging from as small as half an inch to larger than 20 feet in dimension.

He believes that art should be part of people’s daily life, and has applied his talents to variety areas; he has worked for several prestige art companies (affiliates in South-East Asia), television companies, and movie companies since 1989. From 1992, he worked as the chief artist in Lisa Frank Inc. (Tucson, Arizona); since then, he has focused on cartoon sculpting and modeling. Recently, he was selected as the artist to restore an old historical building for centennial celebration of the state of Arizona. His diligent, skilful work made this landmark building a new face. Throughout the years, he received many awards and contracts from different counties, art associates, and originations.
Mediums that his work in are:

High density foam (Urethane Foam)
This material is especially good for making middle to large-sized cartoon sculpture. Because of its smooth-faced finishing, is excellent for architectural model and manufacturing production as well.
White-Styrofoam (EPS)
White-Styrofoam is a good material for middle to large-sized sculpture. It is low cost, easy to handle and usually you will get very satisfactory effect after painting. White-Styrofoam is especially applicable for modeling or props, float parades, as well as commercial display project.
Sculpey (polymer clay)
Using fine polymer clay and Super Sculpey as material, you can make very delicate and elegant model, which can be used for manufacturing different products, such as gifts, stationary, toys, etc. Also great for childish art, craft project.
Jade, Precious stone
High quality jade, stone can be used in traditional Chinese sculpture and fine jewelry. Products from carved jade are very delicate and elegant, which is good for collections.
Others
Solid wood, ceramic, MDF, glass, plywood, they are all good material for carving, or combine together can be used for making many different kinds of art products.