Marker and oil on canvas

100 x 121 cm. 39 3/8 x 47 5/8 in.

Signed and dated in Pinyin on bottom right
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Asia

An Imagination as Plentiful as a Sea of Blossoms
He Juan was born in Qinghai in 1985 and graduated from a program in Oil Painting at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. This rigorous program gave him a solid grounding in classical techniques upon which she could base her subsequent work as an artist. The main subjects of her creations are often animals which she personifies in order to convey her sentiments. Sometimes, He dreams up mutated creatures as a means of expressing her feelings on the subjects of GM technology and ecological destruction. He Juan's artistic methods contrast starkly with those of her contemporaries. Her creative process is profoundly inspired by Gongbi, a set of realistic techniques used in traditional Chinese calligraphy, and requires a great amount of time and energy, energy that led her, in 2006, to win the Dragonair Emerging Chinese Artist Award （DECAA）.
In her work from 2012, entitled Flower Sea Series No. 1, He depicts two animals on a sea of flowers in painstaking detail with the assistance of her gongbi techniques. The main subject is a rather adorable mutant with antlers, bear eyes, and a rabbit's mouth. This creature seems to be lonely or ashamed about its unusual appearance. A snow-white mouse lies on its round head, its arms extended as though it were comforting it. This mouse symbolizes those who silently accompany others through adversity, and the work conveys the artist's concerns for living creatures who find their existence threatened by humans as well as those whom society deems to be freaks.

Price estimate:
HKD: 70,000 - 150,000
USD: 8,900 - 19,100

Auction Result:
HKD : 82,600