Chen Fei, “Big Model”, 2017, Acrylic on Linen, 290 x200 cm.
Initially, Chen Fei’s work is narrative-driven. Before painting, Chen creates a fictional story. Each painting is a culmination of a series of events occurring to Chen’s characters and Chen captures them at a significant point in the narrative. Like people we meet on the street, the elements that coalesce into the painting’s scene are unseen forces forming unexpected results.
Chen Fei’s work shares qualities with comic books and film storyboards with figures outlined in solid black, accentuating the form, while individuals are caught mid-action in the middle of a scene. The is very oftern a blending of Chinese and Western aesthetic cultures in his work, similiar to what one sees in China, where popular bath houses are styllized with Greco-Roman themes.
“The readability of painting is as a form of language. After I complete a work, how the reader interprets or gets inspired or discerns another perspective is out of my control. What I’m capable of is to convince or even exceed myself during the practice more frequently, which is one of the few approaches to express my thoughts.” – Chen Dei