Chen Yufei

The hardest thing for Chen Yufei to come to terms with is the extreme hardship of everyday people, which consequentially became a prevalent theme throughout his art. In Shenzhen, Chen encountered countless workers who were mistreated and exploited, suffering from both physical occupational injury and emotional pain. In his 2012 painting Hurt, Chen depicts a man in an uneasy posture with a small wound across the left side of his chest. Here Chen expresses not only the physical discomfort of the man depicted, but also his inner mental anguish, as represented by the bleeding wound on top of his heart. Through his art, Chen ultimately becomes a passive observer. In this way, Chen finds a temporarily leave of absence which allows him to reflect on the suffering of those around him.