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THEME: FIGURATIVE

He Jian is notable for his amalgamation of ancient and contemporary Chinese culture. Rather than painting in oil like most of his contemporaries, he uses rice paper, dry pigment, and binder as his media. He strategically layers and manipulates his paints to take on the timeworn quality of the 14th century Yuan Dynasty frescoes at the Yong Le Temple in Shanxi Province. He Jian uses this distinctive new-old, antiquated style to present a wide range of quotidian subject matter. Although many of his works portray figural groups engaged in activities characteristic of modern Chinese life, in this series He Jian directs his focus towards utilitarian objects that signaled China’s shift towards a consumer culture. The cheap electronics that have dominated Chinese manufacturing in the past two decades have all but obliterated use of the abacus, a traditional Asian counting tool. But it was only as recently as the 1990s when virtually every shopkeeper in the mainland used one. In a short span of time, the abacus has already become a forgotten object, and both He Jian's stylistics and subject matter are informed by this nostalgia.

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  • Abacus
  • He Jian (b. 1978) was born in Guang Yuan, Sichuan province, and graduated from oil painting department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. His distinctive style is based on the frescoes of Yongle temple in Shanxi province. In the "Mass Consumption" series, begun in 1999, He Jian utilizes traditional modeling methods, particularly those of the hands and feet depicted in those centuries-old frescoes, to create a sharp satire of modern life. He Jian's figures smoke, gamble, drink, and sing at karaoke parlors in vulgar displays of contemporary wealth and excess, but do so in the visual vernacular of ancient China, their stylized bodies instantly recognizable to students of traditional Chinese art history.

    For his witty visual combination of ancient and contemporary, He Jian graduated with distinction, and continued on as a lecturer in the oil painting department of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. Since graduating, He Jian has received increasing attention from the international art world, participating in many shows in China and abroad, as well as signing with a well-known gallery. Because his practice and education have been so firmly rooted in Sichuan, he is frequently exhibited with his Sichuan-based contemporaries, together considered the new face of the Sichuan school of painting.

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    HE Jian 何剑
$35.00
He Jian is notable for his distinctive amalgamation of ancient and contemporary Chinese culture. Rather than painting in oil like most of his contemporaries, he uses rice paper, dry pigment, and binder as his media. He strategically layers and manipulates his paints to take on the timeworn quality of the 14th century Yuan Dynasty frescoes at the Yong Le Temple in Shanxi Province. He Jian uses this distinctive new-old, antiquated style to present a wide range of quotidian subject matter. Although many of his works portray figural groups engaged in activities characteristic of modern Chinese life, in this series He Jian directs his focus towards utilitarian objects that signaled China’s shift towards a consumer culture. Seagull, the first camera maker in China founded in 1958, released the DF series seen here in 1964, and today, its image instantly conjures nostalgia for the time period. He Jian's painting melds the stylistics of classical China with a subject that heralds its recent history in paintings that negotiate the separate but continuous histories that inform China's present.

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  • Seagull Camera
  • He Jian (b. 1978) was born in Guang Yuan, Sichuan province, and graduated from oil painting department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. His distinctive style is based on the frescoes of Yongle temple in Shanxi province. In the "Mass Consumption" series, begun in 1999, He Jian utilizes traditional modeling methods, particularly those of the hands and feet depicted in those centuries-old frescoes, to create a sharp satire of modern life. He Jian's figures smoke, gamble, drink, and sing at karaoke parlors in vulgar displays of contemporary wealth and excess, but do so in the visual vernacular of ancient China, their stylized bodies instantly recognizable to students of traditional Chinese art history.

    For his witty visual combination of ancient and contemporary, He Jian graduated with distinction, and continued on as a lecturer in the oil painting department of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. Since graduating, He Jian has received increasing attention from the international art world, participating in many shows in China and abroad, as well as signing with a well-known gallery. Because his practice and education have been so firmly rooted in Sichuan, he is frequently exhibited with his Sichuan-based contemporaries, together considered the new face of the Sichuan school of painting.

    Click on the artist's name for more information
    HE Jian 何剑
$35.00
Artist He Jian is notable for his amalgamation of ancient and contemporary Chinese culture. Rather than painting in oil like most of his contemporaries, He Jian uses rice paper, dry pigment, and binder as his media. He strategically layers and manipulates his paints to take on the timeworn quality of the 14th century Yuan Dynasty frescoes at the Yong Le Temple in Shanxi Province. He Jian uses this distinctive new-old, antiquated style to present a wide range of quotidian subject matter. Although many of his works portray figural groups engaged in activities characteristic of contemporary Chinese life, in this series He Jian directs his focus towards utilitarian objects that signal China’s shift towards a consumer culture. In this painting, He Jian depicts a pair of floral sandals. The anachronistic depiction of this footwear suggests its elevation to the same level as the Taoist deities that line the walls of Yong Le Temple. He Jian's painting melds the style and flavor of ancient China with a subject that heralds its recent history, visualizing the complex dialogue between ancient and contemporary Chinese culture.

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  • Sandals
  • He Jian (b. 1978) was born in Guang Yuan, Sichuan province, and graduated from oil painting department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. His distinctive style is based on the frescoes of Yongle temple in Shanxi province. In the "Mass Consumption" series, begun in 1999, He Jian utilizes traditional modeling methods, particularly those of the hands and feet depicted in those centuries-old frescoes, to create a sharp satire of modern life. He Jian's figures smoke, gamble, drink, and sing at karaoke parlors in vulgar displays of contemporary wealth and excess, but do so in the visual vernacular of ancient China, their stylized bodies instantly recognizable to students of traditional Chinese art history.

    For his witty visual combination of ancient and contemporary, He Jian graduated with distinction, and continued on as a lecturer in the oil painting department of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. Since graduating, He Jian has received increasing attention from the international art world, participating in many shows in China and abroad, as well as signing with a well-known gallery. Because his practice and education have been so firmly rooted in Sichuan, he is frequently exhibited with his Sichuan-based contemporaries, together considered the new face of the Sichuan school of painting.

    Click on the artist's name for more information
    HE Jian 何剑
$35.00
He Jian is notable for his distinctive amalgamation of ancient and contemporary Chinese culture. Rather than painting in oil like most of his contemporaries, he uses rice paper, dry pigment, and binder as his media. He strategically layers and manipulates his paints to assume the timeworn quality of the 14th century Yuan Dynasty frescoes at the Yong Le Temple in Shanxi Province. He Jian uses this distinctive new-old, antiquated style to present a wide range of quotidian subject matter. Although many of his works portray figural groups engaged in activities characteristic of modern Chinese life, in this series He Jian directs his focus towards utilitarian objects that signaled China’s shift towards a consumer culture.

In this painting, He Jian takes the most renowned brand of Chinese grain liquor, Wuliangye, as his subject. Made from a five-crop blend (broomcorn, rice, glutinous rice, wheat, and corn), Wuliangye is known within every household in China but not without, where the stiff liquor has yet to win over drinkers. The liquor in He Jian's painting is depicted with a nostalgic touch, and Wuliangye is a heritage brand as much a part of China's lived history as anything in history books.

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  • Wu Liang Ye (Chinese Wine)
  • He Jian (b. 1978) was born in Guang Yuan, Sichuan province, and graduated from oil painting department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. His distinctive style is based on the frescoes of Yongle temple in Shanxi province. In the "Mass Consumption" series, begun in 1999, He Jian utilizes traditional modeling methods, particularly those of the hands and feet depicted in those centuries-old frescoes, to create a sharp satire of modern life. He Jian's figures smoke, gamble, drink, and sing at karaoke parlors in vulgar displays of contemporary wealth and excess, but do so in the visual vernacular of ancient China, their stylized bodies instantly recognizable to students of traditional Chinese art history.

    For his witty visual combination of ancient and contemporary, He Jian graduated with distinction, and continued on as a lecturer in the oil painting department of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. Since graduating, He Jian has received increasing attention from the international art world, participating in many shows in China and abroad, as well as signing with a well-known gallery. Because his practice and education have been so firmly rooted in Sichuan, he is frequently exhibited with his Sichuan-based contemporaries, together considered the new face of the Sichuan school of painting.

    Click on the artist's name for more information
    HE Jian 何剑
$35.00
Chen Shijun's distinctive painting style mediates between digital and physical images. The Online Encyclopedia series, for example, takes prosaic images found while browsing online as its source material, and then interprets it through through heavy texturing and a nostalgic palette, converting the raw digital image into a final product with an exceptional sense of physicality. Online Encyclopedia: True Facts No. 2 takes as its source a digital photograph of man's 1960s landing on the moon. The photograph bears the watermark of Xinhua, the official news agency of the Chinese government. Chen Shijun highlights the conflict between battling narratives from the United States, responsible for the landing, and Xinhua, responsible for narrating the story to a Chinese audience. The title of the work, True Facts (2) is a question asking what is reality, how is it represented, and who tells it?

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  • Online Encyclopedia: True Facts (2)
  • Chen Shijun (b. 1982) was born in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and attended the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in neighboring Chongqing for his high school, college, and post-graduate education. Deeply steeped in the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute's long and proud oil painting tradition, Chen Shijun developed a style of painting that mediates between digital and physical images while studying at the academy: “Online Encyclopedia: The Real Facts,” for example, takes an error message from the website Flickr—a error message reading “This Photo Is Currently Unavailable”—and gives it the texture of a physical artefact. Chen Shijun sources the images in his works from keyword searches on internet search engines, converting the raw image into an oil painting so heavily weathered it seems to bear the mark of time itself. The internet and its digital realities are a constant presence in his work; the artist describes the internet as not just a portal of information, but the predominant lens through which he perceives the outside world. Recently graduated, Chen Shijun has begun exhibiting on a modest scale within China, his most notable exhibition being “The Way of the Image,” a two-person exhibition with his contemporary Wang Chunli, with whom Chen Shijun shares an alma mater and a studio.

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    CHEN Shijun 陈世君
$35.00
Chen Shijun's distinctive painting style mediates between digital and physical images. The Online Encyclopedia series, for example, takes prosaic images found while browsing online as its source material, and then interprets it through through heavy texturing and a nostalgic palette, converting the raw digital image into a final product with an exceptional sense of physicality. Online Encyclopedia: Disaster, takes as its source material a screen capture of an image search result on a Chinese search machine, showing the iconic photograph of the Hindenberg burning in mid-air. The famous photograph has become ubiquitous, popping up in searches for the word “disaster,” and here Chen Shijun gives the photograph a sense of its age by instilling the painting with rich texture and wear.

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  • Online Encyclopedia: Disaster
  • Chen Shijun (b. 1982) was born in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and attended the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in neighboring Chongqing for his high school, college, and post-graduate education. Deeply steeped in the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute's long and proud oil painting tradition, Chen Shijun developed a style of painting that mediates between digital and physical images while studying at the academy: “Online Encyclopedia: The Real Facts,” for example, takes an error message from the website Flickr—a error message reading “This Photo Is Currently Unavailable”—and gives it the texture of a physical artefact. Chen Shijun sources the images in his works from keyword searches on internet search engines, converting the raw image into an oil painting so heavily weathered it seems to bear the mark of time itself. The internet and its digital realities are a constant presence in his work; the artist describes the internet as not just a portal of information, but the predominant lens through which he perceives the outside world. Recently graduated, Chen Shijun has begun exhibiting on a modest scale within China, his most notable exhibition being “The Way of the Image,” a two-person exhibition with his contemporary Wang Chunli, with whom Chen Shijun shares an alma mater and a studio.

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    CHEN Shijun 陈世君
$35.00
Huang Yuncan’s series New Youth, looks at the transience of youth and the delicate memories it creates. Huang mimics the haziness of recollection with floating spots that coalesce into figures and interactions.

Two women with puckered lips approach one another with awkwardly bent knees and wrists. Their affected air kissing belies a system of social interaction borrowed from elsewhere—are these kisses of greeting, parting, or have they taken on a completely new meaning? In contrast with their parents generation, these members of China’s urban youth sport the latest fashions, Chuck Taylors and sunglasses. With the exception of the women’s flushed faces, the only other items that receive special notice are the purple gloves and red coat, bringing focus to material possessions. Within the mind’s unreliable archives, a superficial detail can come to define a moment.

This moment seems contemporary, but Huang presents it as a memory, begging the question of what the future holds for this generation and its hybrid culture, and more importantly, what it will be remembered for.

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  • Red Clothes and Purple Gloves
  • Huang Yuncan (b. 1982) graduated from the oil painting department at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2005, and continued her graduate studies until 2008. She has participated in group exhibitions in many of China’s major cities, including Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.

    The series New Youth depicts an experience of youth that is unprecedented China, and is a result of the country’s new material wealth. She portrays her subjects looking carefree and trendy, but at the same time self-conscious – capturing the awkwardness and uncertainty that accompanies the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

    Her characters exist in neutral fields without context. This could suggest the uncertainty of youth, or possibly the lack of fixed references in China’s rapidly changing conditions.

    Huang’s images are presented as animated but imprecise recollections with floating spots that coalesce into figures and interactions. The tenuous bonds between the spots threaten to dissipate at any moment, imitating the brevity of youth and the fragility of the mind’s eye.

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    HUANG Yuncan 黄云璨
$35.00
As the title of the work implies, this teddy bear with a heart-shaped nose and a coy smile appears to be quite peaceful. Upon closer examination, however, a more sinister and disturbing scene unfolds before us. We quickly discover that this cuddly creature is in the midst of pulling the stuffing from its chest. Even more unsettling is the apparent relish with which this act is being undertaken. The bear's focused gaze, rosy cheeks and sly grin all illustrate a degree of amusement. An additional level of tension and disquiet is achieved with the subtle drops of ruby red along the mouth and dotting its paws. This detail further emphasizes the surreal elements of the composition, as this seemingly living, breathing stuffed bear blushes with pleasure.

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  • Peaceful
  • Lili (b. 1982) was born in Chongqing, Sichuan, and graduated from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 2004. She can be characterized as part of the “Cartoon Generation” of Chinese artists, a group that emerged in Southern China during the latter half of the 1990s. Her subjects are seemingly cute, loveable animals such as teddy bears, bunnies, and birds, however their violent and grotesque actions imbue the work with a menacing air. The dark, ominous tone lurking beneath the surface of her supposedly innocent and playful cartoon depictions create a scene ripe with tension. The flat, simplified style of line drawing and muted color palette offer a stark contrast to the complex psychological drama subtly unfolding within the composition, amplifying the elements of suspense and uncertainty. Her works are reminiscent of artist Yoshimoto Nara (b. 1959), known for his Japanese Pop art era depictions of bleary-eyed, bobble head cartoon children in pastel hues. At first appearing merely grouchy after being awoken from a nap, upon further consideration, the dangerous weapons clutched in their tiny fists and dour expressions spread across their oversized faces are decidedly seething with loathing and aggression. Since 2004 Lili’s work has been exhibited in various spaces around mainland China, as well as further afield in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Brazil, and the United States.

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    LI Li 李丽
$35.00
Chen Shijun's distinctive painting style mediates between digital and physical images. The Online Encyclopedia series, for example, takes prosaic images found while browsing online as its source material, and then interprets it through through heavy texturing and a nostalgic palette, converting the raw digital image into a final product with an exceptional sense of physicality. Online Encyclopedia: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, takes an image of a water droplet and its ripples, the sort of commercial photograph that comes preinstalled as a background image on many computers, as its point of departure. The perfect unbroken color fields of the original become wrinkled and worn, while an overlaid http address suggests a sense of artificiality.

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  • Online Encyclopedia: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
  • Chen Shijun (b. 1982) was born in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and attended the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in neighboring Chongqing for his high school, college, and post-graduate education. Deeply steeped in the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute's long and proud oil painting tradition, Chen Shijun developed a style of painting that mediates between digital and physical images while studying at the academy: “Online Encyclopedia: The Real Facts,” for example, takes an error message from the website Flickr—a error message reading “This Photo Is Currently Unavailable”—and gives it the texture of a physical artefact. Chen Shijun sources the images in his works from keyword searches on internet search engines, converting the raw image into an oil painting so heavily weathered it seems to bear the mark of time itself. The internet and its digital realities are a constant presence in his work; the artist describes the internet as not just a portal of information, but the predominant lens through which he perceives the outside world. Recently graduated, Chen Shijun has begun exhibiting on a modest scale within China, his most notable exhibition being “The Way of the Image,” a two-person exhibition with his contemporary Wang Chunli, with whom Chen Shijun shares an alma mater and a studio.

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    CHEN Shijun 陈世君
$35.00
Zhu Zhiwei’s paintings dwell on the incredible scale of China’s industrialization, and the relationship between modern city-dwellers and the man-made environment that they inhabit. In Paradise—Chasing the Wind, factories obscure the horizon. The elongated format and multiple, skewed perspectives of create an intentionally disorienting, fantastical setting. The large central tower seems to be falling apart while it is swarmed by Zhu’s distinctive pink figures. Wearing sunglasses, they climb, dangle and perch on the tower’s nonsensical railings and ledges, creating the impression of an industrial playground. A few characters appear in heroic poses - climbing, carrying objects or helping each other scale the structure. Some sit idly, while others busy themselves pulling pieces off the tower or casting debris downwards. The painting’s lone woman, wearing a qipao (a traditional Chinese dress), dangles her heels, while two men engage in a fistfight down below. On the higher platforms several people. including a man in a red cape, look off into the distance. All appear to be oblivious to rickety state of the tower.

Amidst this flurry of activity, the tower’s purpose remains unclear; the top disappears into a dark, hazy cloud of smoke that drifts across the upper left-hand corner of the composition. The painting’s low vantage point and the strong diagonal lines formed by the tubes on either side of the tower create a disorienting perspective. Viewing the tower from its base, we too can contemplate climbing its dislocated staircases.

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  • Paradise: Chasing the Wind
  • Zhu Zhiwei (b. 1983) was born in Chongqing, Sichuan Province, graduating from the oil painting department of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2007. Encouraged at a young age to pursue his interest in art, Zhu Zhiwei tested into a high school affiliated with the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute when he was a teenager, and continued on for advanced study. His parents' working class background left a profound impact on Zhu Zhiwei, whose works are dominated by the presence of industry. Factories, workshops, and machines make up the backdrop to most of his works, peopled by small, naked chubby human figures, their skin an angry pink. The figures in his works seem equal part cherub, gremlin, and lemming, teeming over the edges of forbidding industrial smoke stacks and production lines. The artist sees cities as the inheritors of industrial civilization, and his works are a whimsical exploration of the industrial landscape as a site of life and livelihood. For a young, emerging artist, Zhu Zhiwei has already shown in moderately within the mainland, and as his practice develops, his profile seems poised to grow.

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    ZHU Zhiwei 朱志伟
$35.00
Chen Jiao's November 7th is named after a date, but features an industrial building, sketched lightly against a square grid. More than the building itself, its form stands out against the blank background, with perspective points and the foreground's boundary clearly visible. Against the front building's side, a slogan is available: “safe production,” painted in bold red characters. The final two characters are each drawn backwards, giving a clue that this is image is not actually meant to be a precise rendering of an actual structure. The markings of light color washes are visible in the background, and the work is dotted with Chen's calculations, leaving building measurements and calculations visible. But Chen is no architect. Trained in oil paiting at the Sichuan Fine Art Institute, Chen leaves the calculations visible as a means of voicing the utility and design that goes into the sketch, asking which meanings remain when the building is described in only its signs.

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  • November 7th
  • Chen Jiao (b. 1983) was born in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and attended the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, graduating from the oil painting department in 2006. After staying on for a Master's degree at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chen left the country for a residence scholarship at the Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral in Germany, followed by an art exchange at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff. Chen's Chinese and European pedigree has served her well, and she is widely exhibited within China. Her works are often nostalgic, recreating the industrial surroundings of her childhood in ghost-like architectural sketches. Other works are abstracted paintings of natural surroundings, paintings that seem to equally mix the subjects of traditional Chinese landscape with the power of abstract expressionism. To Chen, both approaches are means of exploring the spiritual essence of an object, exploring the mixed significations and emotional registers as they exist in her mind.

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    CHEN Jiao 陈皎
$35.00
A toothy grin and great googly eyes. A child smiles at you, and the aviator's cap on her head is both absurd and whimsical, a joke the child knowingly shares with you the observer. Children are a frequent theme in Guo Jin's work, meditations upon pure joy and unadultered idealism. But against the context of modern China, the commentary takes on deeper, critical tones, asking if society's innocence has been lost or if naivety remains; if our worldview is youthful with its eyes full of opportunity, or blinded and obscurded by play-acting and make-believe.

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  • Portrait of a Child
  • Guo Jin (b. 1964) was born in Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, and attended the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, graduating from the oil painting department in 1990. His paintings frequently take children as his subject matter in a juxtaposition of youth with China's own development, and idealism lost. After graduating in the early '90s, he showed modestly within China, significantly in Guangzhou Biennale's 1992 oil painting exhibition, in which many of his Sichuan peers also showed works. Since then, as art institutions and infrastructure have grown within China, he has participated in an increasing number of shows, often with his brother, the artist Guo Wei. His bold use of color and skill at creating silk-screen-like texture in oil have garnered him the attention of many gallerists and collectors. He lives and works in Chongqing and Beijing.

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    GUO Jin 郭晋
$35.00
Children are a frequent theme in Guo Jin's work, meditations upon pure joy and unadultered idealism. Jumping catches three children at Henri Cartier-Bresson's “decisive moment,” poised in kinetic potential as they jump mid-air against an abstract pink sky. Their rounded bodies possess a convincing heft, but their skin is spackled in red, yellow, peach, and white, a texture that suggests both materiality, like the surface of marble, and the passage of time, like antiqued painted furniture. Are these children real or allegorical? Where are they leaping to and what are they leaping from? Guo Jin's work gives itself to many different readings, but the children's sense of dynamism and joy remains constant.

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  • Jumping No. 5
  • Guo Jin (b. 1964) was born in Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, and attended the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, graduating from the oil painting department in 1990. His paintings frequently take children as his subject matter in a juxtaposition of youth with China's own development, and idealism lost. After graduating in the early '90s, he showed modestly within China, significantly in Guangzhou Biennale's 1992 oil painting exhibition, in which many of his Sichuan peers also showed works. Since then, as art institutions and infrastructure have grown within China, he has participated in an increasing number of shows, often with his brother, the artist Guo Wei. His bold use of color and skill at creating silk-screen-like texture in oil have garnered him the attention of many gallerists and collectors. He lives and works in Chongqing and Beijing.

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    GUO Jin 郭晋
$35.00
Children are a frequent theme in Guo Jin's work, meditations upon pure joy and unadultered idealism. Sliding captures a group of three moving with grace and abandon down an unseen slide behind them. Their movement is innocent, capturing a moment of play, but when the children are considered as stand-ins for something greater, whether that be society or the state of a country, the painting takes on greater complexities: does the downward slide imply loss or danger, and if so, what is the childrens' agency? Did they initate this descent, or plunge into it unwittingly? Guo Jin's work gives itself to many different readings, but the painting's sense of momentum and unknown potential remains constant.

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  • Sliding No. 3
  • Guo Jin (b. 1964) was born in Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, and attended the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, graduating from the oil painting department in 1990. His paintings frequently take children as his subject matter in a juxtaposition of youth with China's own development, and idealism lost. After graduating in the early '90s, he showed modestly within China, significantly in Guangzhou Biennale's 1992 oil painting exhibition, in which many of his Sichuan peers also showed works. Since then, as art institutions and infrastructure have grown within China, he has participated in an increasing number of shows, often with his brother, the artist Guo Wei. His bold use of color and skill at creating silk-screen-like texture in oil have garnered him the attention of many gallerists and collectors. He lives and works in Chongqing and Beijing.

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    GUO Jin 郭晋
$35.00
Disquieting in both its graphic content and perverse visual appeal, this work provides the conflicting experience of drawing you in while turning your stomach. A skillfully depicted, brightly colored songbird dangles lifelessly from a miniature noose strung on a bare, spindly branch. The backdrop of pale, drab clouds set against a muted sky give the unsettling feeling of either an execution at dawn or a polluted wasteland. The composition and painting style provide a disturbing variation on Northern Song (960-1126) bird-and-flower painting, which traditionally presented lively birds perched on elegant floral branches against a background of plain taupe silk. In Lili's reinterpretation, all the leaves have wilted and fallen away, and the bird has opted to take its own life. Although dramatic, the work is instilled with a sense of peace and surrender.

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  • Suicide Bird
  • Lili (b. 1982) was born in Chongqing, Sichuan, and graduated from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 2004. She can be characterized as part of the “Cartoon Generation” of Chinese artists, a group that emerged in Southern China during the latter half of the 1990s. Her subjects are seemingly cute, loveable animals such as teddy bears, bunnies, and birds, however their violent and grotesque actions imbue the work with a menacing air. The dark, ominous tone lurking beneath the surface of her supposedly innocent and playful cartoon depictions create a scene ripe with tension. The flat, simplified style of line drawing and muted color palette offer a stark contrast to the complex psychological drama subtly unfolding within the composition, amplifying the elements of suspense and uncertainty. Her works are reminiscent of artist Yoshimoto Nara (b. 1959), known for his Japanese Pop art era depictions of bleary-eyed, bobble head cartoon children in pastel hues. At first appearing merely grouchy after being awoken from a nap, upon further consideration, the dangerous weapons clutched in their tiny fists and dour expressions spread across their oversized faces are decidedly seething with loathing and aggression. Since 2004 Lili’s work has been exhibited in various spaces around mainland China, as well as further afield in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Brazil, and the United States.

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    LI Li 李丽
$35.00
The scene is a gruesome one; a vicious creature with demonic red eyes and sharp claws eagerly laps at a gradually spreading pool of blood. Our gaze follows the trail of blood to the mangled corpse of a poor, defenseless carrot. Breathing a sigh of relief, the viewer quickly realizes that what was initially mistaken for blood is merely carrot juice and the bloodthirsty beast is just an albino bunny innocently enjoying its favorite snack. This mischievous visual duplicity typifies Lili's style and tiptoes playfully on the edge between lighthearted humor and foreboding dread. Her simultaneously cute and creepy animal subjects leave us questioning the difference and relationship between these two extremes.

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  • Yummy
  • Lili (b. 1982) was born in Chongqing, Sichuan, and graduated from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 2004. She can be characterized as part of the “Cartoon Generation” of Chinese artists, a group that emerged in Southern China during the latter half of the 1990s. Her subjects are seemingly cute, loveable animals such as teddy bears, bunnies, and birds, however their violent and grotesque actions imbue the work with a menacing air. The dark, ominous tone lurking beneath the surface of her supposedly innocent and playful cartoon depictions create a scene ripe with tension. The flat, simplified style of line drawing and muted color palette offer a stark contrast to the complex psychological drama subtly unfolding within the composition, amplifying the elements of suspense and uncertainty. Her works are reminiscent of artist Yoshimoto Nara (b. 1959), known for his Japanese Pop art era depictions of bleary-eyed, bobble head cartoon children in pastel hues. At first appearing merely grouchy after being awoken from a nap, upon further consideration, the dangerous weapons clutched in their tiny fists and dour expressions spread across their oversized faces are decidedly seething with loathing and aggression. Since 2004 Lili’s work has been exhibited in various spaces around mainland China, as well as further afield in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Brazil, and the United States.

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    LI Li 李丽
$35.00
2009-07, is part of larger series based inspired by the the artist’s reflections on death. a large skull is centered on a black background. It is rendered frontally in a shimmering riot of colors, which gives it a psychedelic flavor. Despite its eerie qualities, its atypical, abstracted representation partially removes its deathly associations; the skull’s technicolor, viscous rendering dissolves its outline, which helps to conceal its true nature. However, its deep eye sockets create a vacuum that draws in its viewers, forcing them into a staring match that they cannot hope to win. This frontal depiction is a watery mirror for its audience, and a less than subtle reminder of the inevitability of mortality.

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  • 2009-07
  • Zheng Delong (b. 1976) was born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. He is stands out among his art academy-educated peers for having no formal training in art. Early interest in the arts, along with encouragement from his father, prompted him to establish his own studio in the '90s, and his output and exhibition schedule have increased steadily since then. Zheng Delong's technical skills rival those of his contemporaries, and he employs them in the depiction of liquified neon skulls, dogs, and other figural subjects. Zheng uses an expressive, swirling mixture of color and form to create chilling portraits of organic energy.

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    ZHENG De Long 郑德龙
$35.00
The fresh blossom in A Touch of Plum stands out against a desolate grey background of bare winter branches. While the other portraits Yang Xun's Flowers series all depict a supernatural light shining from the center of their subjects, this early bloomer appears woefully mortal. According to the artist, "The pale pink petals are tender and innocent, but in this desolate scene, seem to have bloomed in vain. This defiant but fragile blossom is bound to inspire hope for an early Spring." Yang’s Flowers series was inspired by Song dynasty flower paintings on round fans. With brilliant light and soft shadow, he uses his subjects to portray multisensory memories of attraction, hope, longing or despair.

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  • A Touch of Plum
  • Yang Xun (b. 1981), a native of Chongqing, attended the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute graduating from the oil painting department in 2005. Since his graduation, Yang Xun has taken part in numerous exhibitions in China and abroad, and has been recognized as one of the most original painters of his generation. Currently he lives and works in Beijing. Deeply affected by traditional Chinese culture and imagery, Yang Xun’s body of work often draws its inspiration from the world of Chinese gardens, Chinese opera as well as the iconographic patterns of moon-shaped flower paintings dating back to the Song Dynasty. Rays of light, another leitmotif of Yang’s oeuvre, shine from the heart of the compositions of the artist, unfolding in front of the viewer and blooming like fireworks imbued with a transient yet extraordinary beauty. In Yang’s paintings and most recent installations, light is used to search for memories and fix fragments of history in time; it acts as the eternal time machine, the mental link that the artist employs to create a link between the past and the present. Devoid of any human presence, Yang Xun's pieces are a reflection on the complex relationship between contemporary life and the traditional patterns that used to be at its core.

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    YANG Xun 杨勋
$35.00
Do you remember your classroom blackboard? Chen Jiao takes us back to our first years of school: a glimpse into the world of language and letters, equations and charts. With layers of colorful accents, the childlike trees and found paper, she refers to her own childhood in southern China. The grey wash over the board mimics the grey sky of her industrial town; the trees evoke the trails where she discovered new pathways on long walks. The characters on the board remind the students of their post-Cultural Revolution identities as coexisting workers, yet the yellow chart creates a rating system for a spectrum of students. It is the paradox of Chinese education: how do you distinguish yourself when you must also live as one small part to a whole? No matter where you are from, Blackboard – Jintang Middle School, by Chen Jiao touches on the universalism of learning and its ability to shape both a society’s and child’s memories.

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  • Blackboard-Jintang Middle School
  • Chen Jiao (b. 1983) was born in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and attended the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, graduating from the oil painting department in 2006. After staying on for a Master's degree at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chen left the country for a residence scholarship at the Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral in Germany, followed by an art exchange at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff. Chen's Chinese and European pedigree has served her well, and she is widely exhibited within China. Her works are often nostalgic, recreating the industrial surroundings of her childhood in ghost-like architectural sketches. Other works are abstracted paintings of natural surroundings, paintings that seem to equally mix the subjects of traditional Chinese landscape with the power of abstract expressionism. To Chen, both approaches are means of exploring the spiritual essence of an object, exploring the mixed significations and emotional registers as they exist in her mind.

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    CHEN Jiao 陈皎
$35.00
Yang Xun describes this portrait as “a peach blossom appearing from the dark like the scent of perfume left in the street; a visual sensation that reaches the viewer’s subconscious as a fragrance; a mood that gradually fills the air.” Yang’s Flower series was inspired by Song dynasty flower paintings on round fans. With brilliant light and soft shadow, he uses his subjects to portray multisensory memories of attraction, hope, pain, loneliness or despair.

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  • Fine Hints of Fragrance
  • Yang Xun (b. 1981), a native of Chongqing, attended the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute graduating from the oil painting department in 2005. Since his graduation, Yang Xun has taken part in numerous exhibitions in China and abroad, and has been recognized as one of the most original painters of his generation. Currently he lives and works in Beijing. Deeply affected by traditional Chinese culture and imagery, Yang Xun’s body of work often draws its inspiration from the world of Chinese gardens, Chinese opera as well as the iconographic patterns of moon-shaped flower paintings dating back to the Song Dynasty. Rays of light, another leitmotif of Yang’s oeuvre, shine from the heart of the compositions of the artist, unfolding in front of the viewer and blooming like fireworks imbued with a transient yet extraordinary beauty. In Yang’s paintings and most recent installations, light is used to search for memories and fix fragments of history in time; it acts as the eternal time machine, the mental link that the artist employs to create a link between the past and the present. Devoid of any human presence, Yang Xun's pieces are a reflection on the complex relationship between contemporary life and the traditional patterns that used to be at its core.

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    YANG Xun 杨勋
$35.00
Flawless depicts two pear blossoms in full bloom, suspended from above, with supernatural light emanating from their centers. Yang Xun describes this portrait as “a memory of pure emotion, flawlessly white, but out of reach; where beauty offers hope to soften the pain of longing.” Yang’s Flower series was inspired by Song dynasty flower paintings on round fans. With brilliant light and soft shadow, he uses his subjects to portray multisensory memories of attraction, hope, loneliness or despair.

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  • Flawless · Pear Blossoms
  • Yang Xun (b. 1981), a native of Chongqing, attended the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute graduating from the oil painting department in 2005. Since his graduation, Yang Xun has taken part in numerous exhibitions in China and abroad, and has been recognized as one of the most original painters of his generation. Currently he lives and works in Beijing. Deeply affected by traditional Chinese culture and imagery, Yang Xun’s body of work often draws its inspiration from the world of Chinese gardens, Chinese opera as well as the iconographic patterns of moon-shaped flower paintings dating back to the Song Dynasty. Rays of light, another leitmotif of Yang’s oeuvre, shine from the heart of the compositions of the artist, unfolding in front of the viewer and blooming like fireworks imbued with a transient yet extraordinary beauty. In Yang’s paintings and most recent installations, light is used to search for memories and fix fragments of history in time; it acts as the eternal time machine, the mental link that the artist employs to create a link between the past and the present. Devoid of any human presence, Yang Xun's pieces are a reflection on the complex relationship between contemporary life and the traditional patterns that used to be at its core.

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    YANG Xun 杨勋
$35.00
Chills on a Rainy Night depicts a cluster of pink blossoms against a nighttime backdrop. While the sky appears cold and overcast, a warm and unnatural light emanates from the pistil of the upward facing flower. Yang Xun describes this work as “the melancholy sight of peach blossoms on a rainy night, when long-forgotten memories can trigger a longing for someone who has disappeared from one’s life.” Yang’s Flowers series was inspired by Song dynasty flower paintings on round fans. With brilliant light and soft shadow, he uses his subjects to portray multisensory memories of attraction, hope, longing or despair.

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  • Chills of a Rainy Night
  • Yang Xun (b. 1981), a native of Chongqing, attended the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute graduating from the oil painting department in 2005. Since his graduation, Yang Xun has taken part in numerous exhibitions in China and abroad, and has been recognized as one of the most original painters of his generation. Currently he lives and works in Beijing. Deeply affected by traditional Chinese culture and imagery, Yang Xun’s body of work often draws its inspiration from the world of Chinese gardens, Chinese opera as well as the iconographic patterns of moon-shaped flower paintings dating back to the Song Dynasty. Rays of light, another leitmotif of Yang’s oeuvre, shine from the heart of the compositions of the artist, unfolding in front of the viewer and blooming like fireworks imbued with a transient yet extraordinary beauty. In Yang’s paintings and most recent installations, light is used to search for memories and fix fragments of history in time; it acts as the eternal time machine, the mental link that the artist employs to create a link between the past and the present. Devoid of any human presence, Yang Xun's pieces are a reflection on the complex relationship between contemporary life and the traditional patterns that used to be at its core.

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    YANG Xun 杨勋
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Note: This artwork is not yet available for sale, but will be soon.

The Compendium of Materia Medica refers to a 16th-century compendium of medicinal herbs, compiled by Li Shizhen, a Ming Dynasty botanist and pharmacologist. According to the Yang Xun, "Peony was described in the Compendium of Materia Medica as an unambiguously beneficial herb. This medicinal aspect is overlooked because of its exquisite flower; but underneath the ostentatious petals is a staid and reliable character."

Yang’s Flowers series was inspired by Song dynasty flower paintings on round fans. With brilliant light and soft shadow, he uses his subjects to portray multisensory memories of attraction, hope, longing or despair.

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  • Compendium of Materia Medica • Peony
  • Yang Xun (b. 1981), a native of Chongqing, attended the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute graduating from the oil painting department in 2005. Since his graduation, Yang Xun has taken part in numerous exhibitions in China and abroad, and has been recognized as one of the most original painters of his generation. Currently he lives and works in Beijing. Deeply affected by traditional Chinese culture and imagery, Yang Xun’s body of work often draws its inspiration from the world of Chinese gardens, Chinese opera as well as the iconographic patterns of moon-shaped flower paintings dating back to the Song Dynasty. Rays of light, another leitmotif of Yang’s oeuvre, shine from the heart of the compositions of the artist, unfolding in front of the viewer and blooming like fireworks imbued with a transient yet extraordinary beauty. In Yang’s paintings and most recent installations, light is used to search for memories and fix fragments of history in time; it acts as the eternal time machine, the mental link that the artist employs to create a link between the past and the present. Devoid of any human presence, Yang Xun's pieces are a reflection on the complex relationship between contemporary life and the traditional patterns that used to be at its core.

    Click on the artist's name for more information
    YANG Xun 杨勋
$35.00

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