Deng Jianjin has always been building his own world through experimenting of oil painting creation, which is a world that one will never leave although he/she badly wants to leave. The bodies, gestures, schema in the paintings are interpreted as metaphor and a translation of lust, violence, and power by some critics, it’s undeniable that the majority of critics have an insight into the sociological perspective.

As an artist who got into the contemporary art circles in the 1990s, indeed, Deng Jianjin was interpreted, and positioned from this perspective. Deng Jianjin has always maintained a separate narrative way in his creation, this seemed that there’s never multiple modes coexisting in his painting over the decades. Since the solo exhibition “Lust ? Suppression” in 2009, Deng began turning to the exploration of figurative narrative discussion. The screen is still the “chaotic portraits” of Deng Jianjin-style, but the reality and specific factors are gradually weakened, removed. In the new works, portrait-style faces, specific and subtle details, postures with a clear direction, are all “portrayed” to be the men and women oriented to “styles”. It’s certain that people who are familiar to the works would immediately recognize that they are Deng Jianjin’s characters.

The facial structures are similar, the men and women mainly express their emotions through their eyes, in the relationship with the self and space, to show the deep desire of the individual, declaration and loss in between gain and loss, as well as the search . The fictional world comes alive in front of us, we can’t escape, but only involve the stimulation of the non- event, and constantly docking their own experience, irresistible visual power, and morals. It is the incisive as well as sarcasm, floating and extravagant narrative used by Deng Jianjin, to transform the madness rooted in the mind and heart to render a real existing part of the human being. There’s no happiness directly appearing on the screens, when it provokes sadness, fear, compassion and endless reverie, the issues in art - the temptation of vanity, the tough self- awareness, life and death – all are pointed out by Deng. At this time, I recall what Camus said, “Creation is a second life”, when we have a painful repercussion due to the inspiration of Deng’s paintings, when we realize that there is no outlet, it’s unnecessary to be fearful, the whole world is described as the abyss of absurdity by Deng Jianjin.

Deng Jianjin was born in 1961 in Guangdong. In 1986, he graduated from the Art Department of Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in Jiangxi. Now he is the professor of the Fourth Studio of the Oil Painting Department of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.

About the exhibition

Curator: Fan Lin

Opening: 2013.11.9, Sat., 20:00

Duration: 2013.11.9-2014.1.5

Address: Fei Gallery, G Floor, Estate Plaza, No.5, Nong Lin Xia Road, Guangzhou, China (Metro Exit C of Dongshankou Station Line 1).

Courtesy of the artist and Fei Gallery, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO.