THOUSAND OAKS, CA - An artist who recently emigrated from China will display his powerful installations featuring blackened tree trunks at California Lutheran University from Oct. 6 through Nov. 15.

An opening reception for “Life’s Crossroad: Installations by Gong Yuebin” will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6, in Kwan Fong Gallery of Art and Culture inside Soiland Humanities Center. Yuebin’s work will also be displayed at the flagpoles outside the building.

Yuebin, who lives in Sacramento, created the sculpture installation series in 2010 to express the relationship between people and the earth’s resources, particularly the crossroads at which we find ourselves in preserving natural resources. Struck by the sight of acres of trees in Lake Tahoe that had burned in a forest fire and seeing a connection between them and the casualties of war, he used blackened trunks of large cedar trees to create monumental arrangements that are evocative of stone circles or watching figures.

The installations also reflect Yuebin’s two near-death experiences, one as a child and one as an adult. Born in 1960, Yuebin and his family were forced to work the land in a rural village in Northern China because his parents had been labeled political dissidents. He bonded with nature during a childhood filled with hunger, fear, physical hardship and political persecution. His first brush with death came when he nearly drowned while gathering wild yams that had been washed away by a flood.

Later, Yuebin was able to move to the city and study at art colleges. He taught art at a community college for seven years and participated in shows and competitions. He then put aside fine art for 10 years while working as a commercial art designer. A serious illness, his second near-death experience, prompted him to reconsider his priorities. He decided to immigrate to the United States and return to art. Instead of returning to Chinese-style ink painting, he sought a new medium of expression and began work on installations.

Soiland Humanities Center is on the south side of Memorial Parkway near Regent Avenue on the Thousand Oaks campus. It is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

The Lois and Allan Friedman Family Foundation and the CLU Art Department are sponsoring the free exhibition. For more information, call Michael Pearce at 805-444-7716 or visit http://www.callutheran.edu.