Feng Zhengjie 俸正杰

Reminiscent of Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe screen prints, Feng Zhengjie’s works are characterised by his gaudy, futuristic portraits of fashionable women. Influenced by Chinese traditional folk drawing and modern advertising, Feng Zhengjie produces generic portraits of women with splashes of fluorescent colours, big hair, luscious lips and vacant diverging eyes. Feng Zhengjie explains that the unique glances represent the clashing coexistence of curiosity and perplexity of modern Chinese society. In the process of opening to the consumer society, people have become curious and eager to learn; whilst all these innovations dazed them, leaving them uncertain about making choices. The artist is widely regarded by the contemporary art world as a pioneer of Kitsch painting, although such critique concerns Feng Zhengjie little, nor was painting Kitsch his intention. The artist only follows his emotions as well as forms of criticism, provocation and introspection that he expresses through the palette of colours, style and subjects in his paintings.

Feng Zhengjie’s recent works consist mainly of two series- the Chinese Portrait series and Floating Floras series. The female subjects in the Chinese Portrait series appear neither Western or Chinese, but a hybrid of commercial beauty and a science fiction production of globalisation. The monumental scales of these paintings make them resemble advertisement billboards. The resemblance reflects on the growing consumerism and economic might in that political power gives way to. The Chinese Portrait series focuses on consumers from the new ruling class in China. On the other hand, the Floating Floras series provides an alternative visual stimulation for the audience, using floras to highlight the contrast between life and death, impermanence and eternity. The colour palette is much more mysterious and unconstrained, as opposed to the fluorescent colours the Chinese Portrait series.

Born in Sichuan Province of China in 1968, Feng Zhengjie graduated from the Fine Arts Education Department of the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 1992 and subsequently obtained a Master’s Degree from the Oil Painting Department in 1995. He currently lives and works in . Feng Zhengjie has exhibited internationally in numerous group shows including Dialogue with Asia in , the 2002 Korea Contemporary Art Festival in , Primary Colours at Art Museum in Singapore, New Perspectives in Chinese Painting in and China Gold at the Musee Maillol in . Major museums and private collectors have collected his paintings.

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