Feng Zhengjie 俸正杰
Worldwide recognised artist Feng Zhengjie (1968, Sichuan province, China) has entered prestigious collections such as those of the Saatchi Gallery and of the Singapore Art Museum, amongst others. He is mostly renowned for his large Warhol-style oil portraits, in a red and turquoise palette, of glamorous-looking women with sinuous red lips and vacant wandering eyes (his signature style). Painted through bright and kitsch colours his work explores issues of consumerism and alienation in our contemporary society and 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 […] Removing all distraction, he exposes the essence of temptation, magnifying the sex appeal of fantasy lifestyle and its gulf of intangibility” - Saatchi Gallery.
In his latest series of works Feng Zhengjie engages with the complexity of Chinese characters through vibrant and playful colours, employing an architectural and three dimensional perspective.
“I mostly try to find a way to express my emotions, not to criticise or be provocative. Behind these images of women in my works can be found firstly emotion but also forms of criticism, provocation, introspection... A new understanding of the world. Because I am a person who lives in this country at this moment. On the one hand, people watch a new world that has changed considerately. For example, they can acquire knowledge in the contact with these new things, improve their quality of life and have more opportunities to flourish. It’s positive. On the other hand, this new world also brings changes, not only material but also in value judgments. For example, feelings of anxiety in the face of extreme materialisation. It's negative. My view is like a coin with two sides. My works convey a state of mind: curiosity and perplexity between which exists a conflict.”
Feng Zhengjie
