Chen Yingjie: Revival

Every year Chen Yingjie spends some time in Yangshuo, a small town in southern China, home of some of the most impressive landscapes in Asia. Layers upon layers of emerald green mountains, misty rivers, deep blue skies reflected in paddy fields, the place has long been treasured by artists and nature lovers alike. Armed with his painting tools, Chen puts to use this time in Yangshuo to refuel his creativity. Nature is the overarching theme in all of the artist’s œuvre. The paintings of his Gravity series, with all their fiery abstract look, are a tribute to natural forces. They can be read as imaginary landscapes where the mind is free to wander, taken in by the vivid hues and the strong sense of motion that transpires from the works.

Gravity was conceived and initiated in 2020, upon the realization by the artist that our present ecological situation was improving with the pandemic, and that the slowdown in global activity induced a mild recovery, a form of revival for the environment. It was a time when Chen began to reconsider the relationship between nature and humanity. In the explosiveness and intensity of these new paintings, conflicts and contradictions are expressed, and this prevailing idea that “we must be in awe of nature.”

With a great number of mural projects to his credit in China and around the world, Chen can be regarded as a street artist in the full sense of the term. Spray cans are among his favorite tools, particularly to create the fuzzy and colorful backgrounds of his paintings. This fusion of street art and traditional landscape themes makes the work of Chen Yingjie an unidentified artistic object, taking the best of two worlds while being in itself unlike anything else. “I would like to break away from cultural constraints, and create my own artistic language,” he says.

Paying close attention to the paint drips occurring in his work, especially when doing murals, Chen developed an interest in the effect of gravity on his creations. With this new series, the paintings were rotated many times in order to obtain drippings in different directions, simulating in a visual and artistic way a zero-gravity environment. An experiment in connection with the artist’s fascination for outer space, and his conviction that the exploration of the universe is bound to have a great impact on art practices.

“Perhaps in the near future, what people can see with their naked eye won’t be limited to the Earth’s scenery subject to gravity, but will also include outer space sceneries under zero gravity. Landscape painting will enter a new chapter with the development of astronautics.”

- Chen Yingjie