Mixed media on canvas

150 x 200 cm. 59 x 78 3/4 in.

Titled in English, signed in Chinese and English, and dated on the reverse
PROVENANCE
Important Private collection, Asia

In Me the Tiger Sniffs the Rose
A Glimpse of Ye Hongxing's Glamorous Life

Born in 1972 in Guangxi Province, Ye Hongxing started her professional art career after graduation from the Department of Printmaking at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. She has held multiple solo exhibitions in London, Hong Kong, Beijing and other cities since 2004, and joined the Grand Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Art held by the National Art Museum of China. She collaborated with the famous luxurious brand Christian Louboutin in 2013, and was selected as one of the top 20 contemporary Chinese artists by the curator of the Asian Art Museum in California and the director of Art Cologne. Since 2012 she has been experimenting to blend artificial items in the modern world such as crystals and stickers on oil paintings. East of Eden No.6 (2013) is one of the representatives.

The Epic Profoundness, Depiction of Secular Phenomena

Through East of Eden No.6, viewers can observe different space and worlds of multiple dimensions. The red roadster and a man wearing a top hat are typical Western iconographies, while the Bodhisattva on the Lotus Seat and the Flying Phoenix are symbols emerged from Chinese art. The Thangka motifs and the assembled stickers compose a mesmerizing juxtaposition with historical meanings. With all these elements fused on the canvas, a startling epic scene is depicted. The use of stickers not only enriches the sociality and superimposed social issues delivered by the peculiar artistic languages, but also reflects the spiritual depth of a broad variety of secular phenomena. Referring to a long period in history, the artwork is filled with minor and tiny color sequins and stickers to indicate each historical period beyond. As the poem says, “in me the tiger sniffs the rose,” Ye expresses her broad vision through the intricate illustration.

The Power of Art, Tapping Social Issues

Multilayered, East of Eden No.6 merges the contradictory aesthetics together, such as the abstract and the solid, the historical and the contemporary, the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional, the solemn and the fervent. The effect is a unique power demonstrated, creating a metaphor of the collective anxiety versus the infinitely expanding materialism, and proposes the pursuit of deeper meanings of life.

Price estimate:
HKD: 70,000 – 150,000
USD: 9,000 – 19,400

Auction Result:
HKD: 103,840