Press Release
Cao Jingping was born in 1972 in Chongqing and obtained the Luo Zhongli Art Scholarship in 1997 and he graduated from the Sichuan Academy of Fine arts with a Master's degree in 1999.
Cao Jingping's vibrant colours, composition and fine technique give the impression the butterflies are ready to take off from the canvas at any given moment.
Most of Cao Jingping's paintings consist of three elements, namely the butterflies as a reference to the cycle of life and metamorphosis, the water as a basis of all life and the understated rusty chain as the destructive force of life.
The scale of the insects is amplified so that what was once overlooked is now impossible to ignore. Certain patches of colour on the butterfly wings are crisp and clear, whereas others are blurry like memories. Though it looks formally beautiful, with its thick brushwork and subtle mastery of colour, the underlying themes are that of helplessness and loss.
Cao Jingping's paintings are beautiful, but they are also a provocative analysis of people and their relationships.
Cao Jingping has exhibited at the Shanghai Art Museum, Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum, Guangzhou Art Museum and is one of the participating artists in the Chinart Exhibition, which has been shown in Duisburg at the Kueppersmuehle Museum, in Rome at the MACRO and in Budapest at the Ludwig Museum.
Selected Artworks
Cao Jingping, Red Dragonfly (2003) Acyrlic on Canvas, 50 x 50 cm
Cao Jingping, Dragonfly 2003 Series No. 2 (2003), Acyrlic on Canvas, 150 x 120 cm
Cao Jingping, Butterfly 2002 Series No. 3 (2001), Acyrlic on Canvas, 50 x 50 cm
Cao Jingping, Butterfly Chain Water Series No. 5 (2002), Acrylic on Canvas, 150 x 180 cm