Lot 103: Little Cool

CHEN FEI (CHINESE, B. 1983) Little Cool Painted in 2011 acrylic on canvas 40 x 30 cm. (15 3/4 x 11 3/4 in.) Painted in 2011

40 x 30 cm.

Michael Ku Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan Acquired from the above by the present owner

Chen Fei's craftsmanship is meticulous and neat, yet the scenes he paints are full of imagination and narrative. This tendency to tell stories through his work stems from both his education from Beijing Film Academy and his love of Japanese manga since he was young. This painting titled Little Cool (Lot 103) uses the stillness of the night as a contrasting background while viewers' eyes carelessly drift downward to catch sight of the young dog urinating. His slight glance back gives the painting a humorous note. Chen Fei uses black lines to outline and highly saturated acrylic to fill in the colours. He fuses the exquisite brush work of painting with anime, blending tradition with contemporary pop culture to justify the painting's absurdity. Chen Fei believes the act of drawing is personal. There is no need to produce work catered to anyone else's liking and painting is simply for entertainment and to express one's own spirit. Consequently, seemingly or dinary and flat scenes always have a perverse focus of attention that grabs the viewers' interest. By calling the painting Little Cool , the artist conceals his sense of humor perfectly within his artwork and the viewer cannot help but flash an understanding smile.