Xu Hong Fei who believed that “art should be fun and amusing”, created a new group of works, “Chubby Women” which brought his artistic career to new heights. He combined traditional and contemporary spirit of art in this series. For a long time, in popular culture, putting “chubby” and “woman” together to portray or imply beauty is rare and unappealing. When Xu bonds the two words into a phrase in a positive and creative attitude, a special aesthetic notion came to life.
In this series, Xu searches for beauty from daily life and found liberty and enchantment in portraying “Chubby Woman”. He looks for unique creative perspective in an all natural way. Xu is certain about the beauty in them and pays a lot of respect to them, respect to the human body with a philosophical stance. He considers that each person has the right to enjoy once own body and be confident and contented about it. His Chubby Women are satisfied with present, contented with them and have fun in their daily lives. Xu added accessories or tools that ancient beauty used into these “Chubby Women” to add a linkage of them to popular beauty figures. Chubby and slim sisters are connected in “Four Sisters” by laughter and stories they share and not disparate due to their sizes. All in all, weight should not be the measurement of beauty. Nowadays while most people like slenderness, Xu enjoys describing the beauty and suppleness of fat and admires the energy of weight. His artworks are illustrations of his attitude towards life, i.e. simplistic, sympathetic, and complacent. His meticulous use of white marbles, precious wood and bronze in portraying these figures have left viewers and art pursuers with new dimension to beauty in a revitalizing way.
Born in Guangzhou in 1963, Xu Hongfei studied sculpture at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. He has been involved in numerous public sculpture projects in different parts of China since 1990’s. He established his 10,000 sq ft studio in 1995. He is currently the Vice Chancellor of Guangzhou Sculpture Institute.
Xu Hongfei is a close friend of Chinese acclaimed master Huang Yongyu whom he met in 1997 when Xu Hongfei created his first “Chubby Women” sculpture- “Autumn”. During that time, Xu was in search for a new direction in his art after spending years participating in competitions, and national exhibitions. Looking for a breakthrough, Xu earnestly sought Huang’s advice in directions for innovations. Huang commended that “Chubby Women” was to be an interesting subject and could be developed further into a collection of works that could possibly bring Xu to new heights in his artistic career. Xu was motivated and encouraged and continued his research and development of the “Chubby Women” series. At present, Xu has created over 100 pieces of “Chubby Women” sculpture.
Xu has held exhibitions in France, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Thailand. His works have been presented in art fairs in Hong Kong (International Contemporary Art Fair 2007 and Hong Kong International Arts and Antique Fair 2008). He was invited by the Paris Eighth District Government to hold his solo exhibition at the District Government Hall in February 2008. And in August, he was selected by the International Olympic Committee to be the only sculptor representing China to participate in the “2008 Olympic Sport & Art Contest” and the work “A Merry Victory” is collected by the International Olympic Committee Headquarter in Switzerland.
In terms of public works, one of his remarkable pieces, “Facing the Wind” was displayed at the Hong Kong Arts Centre from December 07 to June 08. It was very well-received and it is currently displaying at Taikoo Place in Quarry Bay.
