Picturing wonderland

Artist invokes a sense of the spiritual in his latest series of landscapes, Deng Zhangyu reports.

Since the end of last year until October, oil painter Ye Jianqing has devoted himself to depicting a world covered by mist, a spiritual shelter for people to seek respite from life's chores.

His solo show at the Tokyo Gallery + Beijing Tokyo Art Projects in Beijing presents the artist's latest series of 12 large-scale oil paintings, The Wonderland. Mist and hazy outlines of rocks, trees and mountains dominate Ye's paintings, making them look like Chinese ink paintings before the blue tone reminds viewers that they're actually looking at oil paintings.

The works on display are a production of Ye's reflection on his own life, influenced by both the cultures of the East and West.

Ye was born in 1972 in Ningbo, a coastal city in Zhejiang province. When he was a little boy, he started learning traditional Chinese ink painting. After 1978, when China announced its opening-up to the world, his life was greatly influenced by books, movies, music and clothes, among other things introduced from the West. He learned oil painting before going to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.