Pu Jie

Drawing on his childhood memories of the Cultural Revolution and perceptions of the rapidly changing Shanghai environment, Pu Jie blends Pop art and comic strip motifs in his bold primary-colored paintings. His series “We Are the New Comers, We Are the Future” (2006) layers vivid Pop-inflected depictions over realist figures on the same canvas. The series shows stylistic traces of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, whose “strong modern fusion” he blends with the clearly defined lines of traditional Chinese painting. Along with his wooden sculptural installations of miniature skyscrapers, these works ponder China’s new, modernized reality. “The backbone of Chinese contemporary art is the re-pondering towards Chinese culture with a critical attitude,” Pu says.