CHEN FEI

Chen Fei’s narrative paintings are fantasised, often perverted, constructs transposing elements from his personal life into either surrealistic or hyperrealistic pastiches. While he belongs to the post-1980 generation of Chinese artists raised under the one-child policy, whose overall aesthetics influenced by mainstream culture (notably manga and anime) is typically concerned with the self rather than grand history, a remarkably sharp sense of black humour informs his vibrant, ego-centred visions. Almost systematically exhibiting his own figure in his work, he satirically diverts the age-long tradition of self-portraiture to revisit Eastern and Western art-historical canons. The highly graphic quality of his lively compositions, which he envisions as film stills, playfully contrasts with the refinement of his very meticulous and detail-oriented style. Further interested in how the rapid economic growth of China has impacted its now globalised culture, Chen Fei also questions his nation’s collective taste and societal evolution.