Chen Yingjie: Shaping the essence

9 June - 20 August 2018 Shanghai

In the course of painting, Chinese traditional culture had a significant impact on my creation. In China, we pay more attention to the harmony between yin and yang, and the Taoist theory Jing Qi Shen (Essence, Energy, Spirit). These theories also exist in Chinese traditional ink painting. So, you may feel that a blast of dynamic and invisible air is flowing around my works. Then you can also perceive the breath of life, the power of nature, the battle of life, and also the current severely unbalanced relationship between the nature and the people.

- Chen Yingjie

Under the early influence of his father, Chen Yingjie started to learn Chinese traditional painting at the age of six, which laid a solid foundation for his latter art career. In addition, he also drew lots of inspirations from famous Chinese ink painting artists like Wu Guanzhong and Zhang Daqian. During his studies in Singapore, he also discovered and found inspiration in Western street art.

For Chen Yingjie, graffiti is an art performance with a combination of sensation, power, and speed. After continually trying and painting, the artist increasingly mastered the splattered ink technique. And he spent nearly three years on transforming his practice and finding his own technique.

With his new-found technique Chen Yingjie paints on papers, canvas and walls, finding inspiration everywhere. Different sizes of painting and transitions of space bring a series of new challenges to the artist.

In this exhibition, SHAPING THE ESSENCE, presented at Danysz gallery in Shanghai, Chen Yingjie presents his most recent artworks. As the artist shares The concept of tangible and intangible, figurative and abstract is always presented in my painting. It helps me to explore and create an original form of urban art tinted with oriental traditional ink principles. Combining landscape representation with abstract expressionism gets even more interesting as the artist adds his splattered ink technique. In order to experience Chen Yingjie?s creative process, where movement meets painting in an unprecedented way, the large central artwork of the show is executed during a special live painting moment.