Pastries No.14

By adopting ancient techniques and frescoesque modes of portraying of the contemporary scenes, He Jian doesn’t try to challenge the tradition or seek rebellion, nor he is being avant-garde in the fashionable sense of the term. By borrowing ancient techniques and rendering the subjects in a manner more than 600 years old, He Jian emphasizes the fact that people are and always will be products of their own culture and history.
His distinctive style of artistic expression is inspired by the frescoes of the 14th century Yongle temple in Shanxi province. At first glance, his works look aged, as if they are in need of intensive restoration, the effect that the artist reaches with the technique of layered paint over a thin surface of rice paper.
Juxtaposing antique techniques of meticulous Chinese brush painting with the subject-matter of Chinese contemporary everyday life as well as his childhood memories, He Jian takes his works into a unique temporal dimension.