Shi Lifeng (b. 1968) is a Chinese contemporary painter who graduated in painting from Hebei Normal University in 1991. He has exhibited at the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, in venues across Asia and Europe and at fairs such as Art Basel and Frieze. Set in utopian dreamscapes with a red-and-black palette and Mao-era references, his small running, leaping and climbing figures embody the hope of escaping poverty and comment on present-day China.
Shi Lifeng (b. 1968, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China) is a Chinese contemporary painter. He graduated in painting from Hebei Normal University in 1991. His work is recognisable by an intense palette dominated by red and black and by references to the Mao era. Shi’s canvases often show small figures running, leaping and climbing, read as images of striving to escape poverty and of hope for a better life, set within utopian dreamscapes that comment on present-day China. He has developed several long-running series, among them “Peach Blossom Land”, “Dream & Garden” and “Controlling”. Since his first oil painting exhibition in Beijing in 1995 he has exhibited widely, including at the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art and in venues in Singapore, Hong Kong, London, Copenhagen and Paris. His work has also been shown at art fairs such as Art Basel and Frieze. The oil painting “Controlling No. 73” (2016), offered by TUMO Gallery, belongs to the “Controlling” series and depicts a Buddha’s hand gesture surrounded by small figures.
