The Fish Art Center is pleased to introduce an exhibition by the Chengdu based artist Chen Ying. This will be the only major Chen Ying solo exhibition in Taipei. In this special solo exhibition, Chen continues to challenge the human sight ability between surrealistic and realistic. Graduated from Sichuan Academy of Fine Art, department of oil painting, artists such as Zhang Xiaogang, Luo Zhongli, or Zhou Chungya all graduated from the academy. Chen is now part time lecturer at Sichun Normal University, specialize in oil painting.

Before entering the academy, Chen was a part time self-taught artist and a full time mechanic at a train station. Following his heart, Chen decided to enter the art academy to receive proper training to enhance his technique, in pursuing an art career. In his early works, Chen was considered as a photorealism artist, a genre of painting developed in the United States between the 60’s and 70’s, use cameras and photographs as equipment to gather visual information in making the painting looks photographic. After he can achieve perfection, Chen took this technique and transcended it, his painting no longer just documenting daily objects but complex emotional works of art. The rise of economic in China has up lifted the average living standards and induces the value shift of Chinese society. For Chen, this change in value is melancholy. So, he transferred this wistful thought on to canvas. To represent this “change”, Chen picked “doll” as the symbol. Before the Chinese Reform, doll was an extravagant and expensive toy only for the children of upper class family. In Chen’s painting, the doll is lonely and left in an unknown space; along in a corner or piled with other rubbish, indicate a sentiment of wistfulness. The doll is merely for pleasure and can be easily disposed in today’s world, so is life. The painting points out the ugly truth of this seemly fascinating world but under the ravishing appearance, what else do we have left.

image @ Fish Art Center