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Hello,

Could someone identify who the artist is? It is signed but not legible to me.

It has a tag in the back that says "Beverly Hills Gallery" in Beverly Hills CA, but the gallery is not in business anymore and I can't find any information about it.

I bought this about 20 years or so ago at a thrift store.

Thanks

Disclaimer: I’m not an expert.
But, I think your painting has some resemblance to some of the paintings you can find online claimed to be made by an artist called Wai Ming. It’s hard to tell from pictures but when reading from left to right, could the second name in the signature be read as “Wai”?
If not the actual Wai Ming, perhaps your artist was inspired by Wai Ming or the resemblance is a coincidence. Apologies for this very unclear answer, but perhaps some ideas for further investigation.

Best regards
Joakim

Hello Joakim,
Yes, it is very likely that the last name in the signature is Wai.
You said that there is an artist with the name Wai Ming, but the signature is possibly Ming Wai. So, do people from East Asia swap or sometimes swap the first and last name when signing?

If you want to investigate this more I suggest that you google “Wai Ming artist” and look at pictures of paintings that are available on e.g auction sites. Try and find paintings that looks like yours in terms of motif, choice of color, painting style and perhaps also framing type to narrow it down to the same time period as artists some times sign their work in different ways during their careers. If you find signatures, try and compare how the letters are written to the signature on your painting.
To my understanding, Chinese names are written with surname first. If it turns out that your painting signature is actually “Ming Wai” then this signature is written in the western way i.e surname last (when reading left to right).
Wish you best of luck with any further investigations!
Best regards
Joakim

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