About the Artist

Xu Lei, is one of China's most distinguished contemporary painters, with a refined style that has been described as both "noble and passive" by his fellow-artists.

 

Born in Nantong, a city in the eastern province of Jiangsu that has become a shipbuilding centre, he studied painting at Nanjing's Arts university, graduating in 1984. He now lives in Beijing as the art director of the Today Art Museum and a fellow of the Art Academy of China.

 

Five years after China opened up to the world in 1979, Mr Xu helped spearhead the development of experimental art in China and was part of the so-called 1985 Art Movement, in which Chinese artists drew on conceptual techniques from the West.

 

After dabbling in surrealism and conceptual art, however, Mr Xu settled on a precise style of ink painting, with much of his work conveying a sense of nostalgia for China's past heritage.