Chinese Portrait L Series No.1

Feng Zhengjie is a central figure of the “School of Kitsch” and focuses on portraiture, a relatively new tradition in Chinese art. In his works, he explores China’s rapid transition to modernity in recent decades.

In this Warholian-style painting, Feng Zhengjie depicts a glamorous woman with a strikingly cold gaze. This fluorescent, sexualized representation mimics the aesthetic of contemporary advertisements, which often commodify women. Feng may be suggesting that women have become objects in this newly globalized and consumerist Chinese society. Indeed, the woman’s hollow and dazed stare gives this portrait a sense of her helplessness, hinting at the ambiguous effects of a hyper-consumer culture.