Petals, Pineapples and Love
Beijing-based artist Lin Zhipeng and his unapologetically sensual work are a point of reference for Chinese counterculture.
Born in 1979 in Guangdong, close to Hong Kong, Lin Zhipeng likes to be called N° 223, the name of a young police officer in Wong Kar-Wai’s film Chungking Express (1994). In continuity with the filmmaker that shaped a fundamental part of Chinese visual culture, Lin Zhipeng enigmatic frames and bold aesthetic choices constitute a middle finger to society’s conformist tendencies.
“Faded flowers tangled with flesh tones, myriad patterns mixing with an emotional ambiguity of both love and chaos, fantasy and eroticism”, he writes in his website. Playing with cultural stereotypes and gender-fluid intimacy, Lin Zhipeng does a good job at destroying the western idea of what contemporary Chinese youth looks and feels like.
Lin Zhipeng’s exhibition “Colors of Love“ is on view at Sinibaldi gallery until August 31.
