John Moores Painting Prize China Biographies: Part 1

Peng Yong: 2022 Winner

Pen Yong’s work had a transitional development from the real world towards the inner spiritual realm. As his life and mindset changed, purity and simplicity became a key part of the creative process, through enhancing the aestheticism of textures and material.

Peng Yong experimented with themes of repetition and contrast through architectural motifs. His piece ‘3000 Realms in a Single Moment of Life No.43’ exemplifies the use repetition to generate new worlds through his approach of “repeated generation”. The feeling of calmness by the soft gradient tones, contrasts with the awe and fear of the towering monuments depicted in his work. As a practising Buddhist, many of his teachings imbue within the artworks, through the tranquil colourfield and steady and slow brush-strokes.

Yong, P. (1984) 3,000 realms in a single moment of life.

You Xin: 2022 Winner

You Xin’s paintings create a profound introspective awareness, as to how painting can be variably perceived through different angles and interaction of colour. By focusing of the materiality of the pigment and how it interacts with light, You Xin forces the viewer to reflect on the act of viewing.

His piece “Silence” selected as the top 10 favourites by the audience, created out of the Pandemic utilises the characteristic of materials to create an industrial feel, contrasted with the organic pigments. In many ways we can see how the pandemic changed the way we see nature in appreciating its value, but also the suppressiveness that was experienced within the industrial environment.

‘Silence’, aluminum plate, optical pigment, water-based media, 3M paper tape, 137 x 220 cm by You Xin.

Wang Longwei: 2020 Winner

Wang Longwei considers himself an art teacher rather than an artist. He uses his art as an expression of his identity but also an expression of the state of the world. As his art develops Wang Longwei shifted his focus away from technical expression and further towards the process of painting and the reasons why we use paint. Wang Longwei breaks down the boundaries of traditional painting through the potentiality of a three dimiensional world with sewing, collage and installation.

In many of his pieces, he uses string to create a sense of texture but also an uncontrolled and expressive nature. His string paintings acted as a representation of his feelings of confusion in the height of the pandemic and the importance of other artistic mediums as a means of expression

Currently Wang Longwei is a teacher in Xinjiang and uses interactive art as a means to teach and learn from his students.

Chen Jiabing: 2022 Winner

As an artist Chen Jiabing views art as a “game of painting that is continuously evolving”. His art lends itself to gaining new understandings and knowledge from the familiar process.

The smooth and gestural brushstrokes evoke this feeling of calmness and fluidity of motion, a feeling in which Chen Jiabing holds dear to his life and practice; “Calmness is more important than happiness”.

Chen Jiabing attempts to find a sense of order to his painting process as a form of self-study, he uses large brushstrokes to evoke his feelings using his fingers and brushes. The paintings reveal a real intimacy into the artists feelings towards the figure, which happens to be his wife Lisa. He portrays his wife in many of his pieces through shape, colour and texture, and in a way become a muse to his pieces.

Chen Jiabing also produces sculptural works that represent abstractions of the female form. He uses natural materials from his environment living in the mountains to create these figures. Much of these works connects to the idea of emotions from the physical form; by distorting the figures proportions, indescribable feelings can be derived.

Chen Jiabing also produces sculptural works that represent abstractions of the female form. He uses natural materials from his environment living in the mountains to create these figures. Much of these works connects to the idea of emotions from the physical form; by distorting the figures proportions, indescribable feelings can be derived.

Stay tuned to read about the other artists....

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