Feng Zhengjie paints striking contemporary women. With their colored hair, richly hued clothes and luscious, expressive lips, the women appear irresistibly dazzling. And yet, the wandering expressions in their eyes render them elusive and enigmatic. In response to the new issues confronting China, Feng Zhengjie decided to take inspiration from the popular images he had grown up with in rural Sichuan. Critics are unanimous in placing Feng's paintings in the realm of the critique of contemporary consumer society this was especially clear in the "Romantic Trip" series, which pictured young couples in the expensive wedding ceremonies now fashionable amongst certain sections of Chinese society.

These strange, unknowable eyes have become Feng's signature style. Feng studied to MA level at the Fine Art education department of the Sichuan Academy of Fine Art between 1988 and 1995. After 1989, Feng rejected both socialist realism and Western academic art, turning instead to the questions raised by China's emerging contemporary art scene. He developed a more critical outlook with regards to society.

Feng Zhengjie's Biography

BIOGRAPHY

1968 - Born in Sichuan Province, China. Lives and works in Beijing, China Feng Zhengjie's works and observe images of men and women as portrayed directly or created by the artist's mind. A slideshow of glances, many and varied, of people that seem to be passing in and out of view, passing fast through the life and the canvases of the artist.

I look at them and they seem to be looking at me too, or looking at each other and suddenly seeming alive, even if at the same time the plain forms and exaggerated colors give the impression of the unreal. Their eyes change and follow the artist's transformations that, year by year, with different thoughts, look towards and within his country's history and culture. Shunned gazes intimate hidden secrets; the girls in the series "Butterfly in Love" avoid eye contact conspicuously. Feng's paintings reflect a vision of futuristic pop. His generic portraits of women are influenced by promotional imagery: their exotic colors, electrified auras, and wind machine hair exude the glamour aesthetic of commodified desire. Feng appropriates these staples of western kitsch as a readymade lingo for duplicity of ideology. His work is often discussed as capitalist critique, his empty eyed models posing as frivolous and vacant signifiers. Neither western nor Chinese in appearance, Feng's femmes fatales are a super-hybrid of commercial beauty, a science fiction product of globalisation. What to Do Next... Feng's paintings reflect a vision of futuristic pop. His generic portraits of women are influenced by promotional imagery: their exotic colors, electrified auras, and wind machine hair exude the glamour aesthetic of commodified desire. If you want any information about Feng Zhengjie or looking for his paintings please visit us on http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/feng_zhengjie.htm

About the Author

View Feng Zhengjie paintings, biography, solo exhibitions, group exhibitions and resource of Feng Zhengjie. View art online at The Saatchi Gallery - London contemporary art gallery. Feng Zhengjie