Besides the once ironic but now overly clichéd soviet socialist realism often used in propaganda, post Cultural Revolution China has had a dearth of decent art. Only in the past decade or so have people started to rock out with their cocks out when it comes to art. Still, innovation and artistic ability are not qualities one usually thinks of when it comes to modern Mainland China. So I went to 798 to smash that mindset into oblivion with the help of some artists that specialize in such smashings.

The work that I liked the most was located in Star Gallery, a small place hidden away on the second level of a low-rise building snug between some of the bigger galleries. There on display was a solo exhibit by the artist Chen Fei (陈飞). The aesthetics of his work wasn’t an a-bomb on the stimuli or anything, but I liked its simplicity, stark colour schemes and high contrast. Dude’s work reminds me of single pane comics, Gary Larson not so much, but maybe I’m not the only one to see a little Shintaro Kago in there. Keeping with the subtle comic style, there was a dash of humor and irony mixed in too, of which I don’t often encounter here in industrial utilitarian land.

Now for a closer look at some of this work:

I’m Fine
Most of his paintings had one of two girls in his work. I’m not even sure if they were different girls, but they were definitely dressed different, and in my black and white world if someone can wear two completely different outfits, better watch your back, that loon probably has some mental disorder. I like the idea behind this piece, but because I don’t know whom either of these girls are it’s hard for me to get any real emotional attachment to it. For example, if this girl was my Suzie Wong, there might be more of that special feeling in my cockles, or maybe in my sub-cockle area, maybe in my liver, maybe even in my colon, I don’t know.

The Story Says, What is Is, What is Not Is, What Is is also Not
It’s such a simple idea: a character in the painting, painting the painting. Really though, there’s a lot more than that going on here. First we’ve got chicken pox all over the fucking place, I mean swine flu ain’t got nothing on this. Then we’ve got some interaction between the ironically dressed woman and the girl. Is she passing the torch so to speak? Is girl really a nurse who’s trying to salvage a crafts class at the old folks home gone awry? But perhaps the most important question in all of this…why isn’t the girl wearing any shoes?! The INSANITY!!!

The Left Fist Has No Strength
This one was cool enough, but I think it would have been far more accurate had the artist drawn a normal arm slightly above that tentacly mass that’s emerged from the girl’s torso. Why? Take a ride on a bus with a bunch of tanktop clad Chinese girls hanging onto the handles while their pit-muffs are shoved in your face and then you’ll know what I’m talking about. You also won’t be able to sleep for days.

Famous Painting
Continuing along with the theme of strange tentacles in place of body hair, we have this little number. Maybe the previous painting was the girl’s reaction to this one. But I’d be even less surprised if the artist got this idea from some dude here in Qingdao who tried to make off with some squid. Seriously, cephalopods are multiple-armed currency in this town.

Suddenly there’s Snow Tonight, Old Man Straight is Lovable
This was my favorite piece. I like how the foreground is perfectly lit as if it was daytime; yet clearly daytime it is not. Thanks to a childhood in the boondocks, I also have a thing for old tractors and trailers. Some other excellent details that aren’t shown in my low res photo, there is a run over frog on the road, and there’s a bloody arm hanging out the side of the trailer. The resulting combination effectively blows my mind.

To Remember Our Comrades by
This piece is no where near original, cause I’m certain I’ve seen similar work with all kinds of random dudes in a group shot like they just won the Stanley Cup of weirdness. It would be the perfect kind of painting to hang in a den of marijuana consumption, so that people would have something with lots of details to focus on when they’re stoned. I’m glad I didn’t have much of an affinity for this one, because at Y650000, (about C$110,000), I can only afford about 2 square inches of it. This brings me to my final conundrum.

Why is Chinese art priced only for those in possession of golden egg laying super geese?

Art is pretty. But no matter how wealthy I ever become, there’s no way I’m going to drop down as much money on one contemporary painting as I could on one hell of a WD40 fueled robot orgy nice sports car. Hell, for a hundred grand, I could make my own art (in the form of crudely drawn penises) and put it up full-page style in the New York Times. You better believe it’d get more exposure. I guess the ever growing legions of nationalistic Chinese millionaires combined with rich western muppets who want in on the next big thing has knocked the supply/demand curve into an image so distorted it could be artistic in it’s own right. In fact, that could be an entire series of hilarious paintings. I need to get paid for this shit. Maybe then I could buy some of this art…and barrels of WD40.

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