Emblematic of the ability to Feng Zhengjie to describe figures, faces, looks and thoughts. His first paintings look like anatomical studies where bundles of muscles and nerves of random figures become the main part of the painting, it's the 90s. His artistic research focuses on the carnality of volumes and also of structure. Everything is then superimposed on rounded faces as in XNUMXth century Chinese posters, with popular scenes and wishes for a happy new year.
Reminiscent of screen printed celebrities from Warhol, Feng's paintings reflect a vision of futuristic pop. Her generic portraits of women are influenced by promotional imagery with a glamorous aesthetic of commodified desire. Neither Western nor Chinese in appearance, le fatal femmes by Feng are a hybrid of commercial beauty, a sci-fi product of globalization.
His ability to describe figures, faces, gazes and thoughts is emblematic. His first paintings look like anatomical studies where bundles of muscles and nerves of random figures become the main part of the painting, it's the 90s. His artistic research focuses on the carnality of volumes and also of structure. Everything is then superimposed on rounded faces as in XNUMXth century Chinese posters, with popular scenes and wishes for a happy new year.
And this is how Maoism becomes “pop” for Zhengjie, altering his research to create two-dimensional images, as if to signify the superficiality of the new capitalist society, where what is exalted is only appearance, necessarily beautiful and perfect. In his faces, however, beyond the plasticity, the emptiness of feelings, ideals and the absolute absence of personality shines through. Her subjects change over the years, becoming more romantic and real, such as “Romantic Trip No.01” from 1996, a portrait of a young bride, with a veil and pearl necklace.
The series "Romantic” is often also made up of the male figure, always on a happy day that sees them united in marriage. In the background, flowers and cherubs that gradually transform into almost cartoon characters. In 1998 he began his series "Fashion“, models with a face-body relationship in the absence of proportion, where the face begins to be an enormous protagonist. The 2000s are characterized by the series “coolness“, minute and naked female figures placed on planes like tables, with green lips, nails and glasses and plastic toys. And finally the series "China No.” almost all female subjects, where what is exalted only the lips, large and sensual, but also the eyes with their cross-eyed, distorted or empty gazes, which seem to look at nothing. Women with the strangest hair styles, from the 30s to other high tech shapes, wavy hair that frames the face or pulled back as if it were wet.
The lips are the key to sensuality, an instrument of seduction, but also of communication. Where the individual who observes them comes into contact with a certain materiality. Red lips on candid, almost diaphanous faces, as a canon of Chinese beauty. The chromatic contrast is very strong, made even more evident by the comparison between red and green, the two favorite colors of Feng Zhengjie, colors of the Chinese tradition, the "red" ideology and the "green" jades. In short, a country that is already two-coloured by culture.
A link with fashion? Inspiration is not lacking, indeed a reference to the "fashion" world is evident. But they are not women of the catwalks, they rather look like models of a dream, social and political dream.
