Chen Fei /
Dongdong, Sun,author.
Zheng, Shi,editor.
Berlin : Distanz Verlag
[2016]
The work of Chen Fei (b. Shanxi, China, 1983; lives and works in Beijing) is part of a new trend in contemporary Chinese art that represents a clear thematic as well as aesthetic departure from the avant-garde art of the 1980s and 1990s. His pictures evince the unconscious influence of the many0movies he has seen since he was a child - masterworks and cult classics as well as B movies. He actually enrolled at the Beijing Film Academy; a series of paintings shows 202 villains, with their characteristic costumes and accessories, from 197 movies ranging from 'Clockwork Orange' to 'Ichi the Killer', from 'The Shining' to 'Kill Bill', from 'Hard Candy' to 'Bride of Chucky'. The same morbid sense of humor is evident in Chen's more recent paintings. His brush transmutes scenes of human anatomy or death into harmless jokes. What truly impresses him, Chen Fei says, are the rogues, not the upstanding citizens, and the same goes for painting: beauty and good health leave him bored.
The work of Chen Fei (b. Shanxi, China, 1983; lives and works in Beijing) is part of a new trend in contemporary Chinese art that represents a clear thematic as well as aesthetic departure from the avant-garde art of the 1980s and 1990s. His pictures evince the unconscious influence of the many0movies he has seen since he was a child - masterworks and cult classics as well as B movies. He actually enrolled at the Beijing Film Academy; a series of paintings shows 202 villains, with their characteristic costumes and accessories, from 197 movies ranging from 'Clockwork Orange' to 'Ichi the Killer', from 'The Shining' to 'Kill Bill', from 'Hard Candy' to 'Bride of Chucky'. The same morbid sense of humor is evident in Chen's more recent paintings. His brush transmutes scenes of human anatomy or death into harmless jokes. What truly impresses him, Chen Fei says, are the rogues, not the upstanding citizens, and the same goes for painting: beauty and good health leave him bored.