Ling Jian

Contemporary painter Ling Jian challenges female beauty ideals and Chinese identity in hyperreal and exaggerated portraits of women. Ling graduated from the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, in 1986. Years living in Europe in the 1980s led him to investigate the body in experiments with performance art. The artist, who splits his time between Beijing, Hong Kong, and Berlin, explores the dynamics between East and West with references to global politics, mass consumption, and shifting beauty standards. His oil-and-acrylic group portrait Communist Sisters: Tears of Idealism No. 2 (2007) sold for $325,061 at auction in 2008. Ling’s paintings have been included in numerous group exhibitions in Asia, Europe, and the U.S., including the 2011 Chengdu Biennale and the 1993 Chinese Oil Painting Biennale at the National Art Museum of China, where his work won first prize. A solo exhibition, titled “Moon in Glass,” appeared at the Today Art Museum (2010) and UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (2011).