Wei Jia, one of the most representative contemporary Chinese artist born after 1970, ventured into painting from lithography in 2003, and is about to enter his 15th year of this journey.

The year of 2016 had particular significance for Wei Jia; it was the year that he moved from his converted warehouse-studio to the new campus, where trees grew tall and lush and all was lively and prosperous. It was also the year in which he accepted the position as director of the printing department and emerged from his reclusive lifestyle opening his studio doors to regain contact with the outside world. His approach of exploring humanity as an observer returned back to exploration through interaction and exchange. Wei Jia has created a number of larger-scale works that all have a life of their own; their individuality brings to mind the fortune poems mentioned in Dream of the Red Chamber. Sudden Brilliance is — just as its title implies — a sudden burst of brilliant prosperity. The World of Fiction is a quiet and steady moment of immersion in art. Buried in Cloud exudes Wei Jia’s exquisite, almost royal quality. River is a stunning world of water and fog in which spirits flow gracefully. Perhaps Youth Survivor of a Bygone Age was painted for those who exist simultaneously in two times and wander between two spaces, or for those who leave their world just to step back into it again to find that it is ever vibrant and blossoming. In End of the Year, a brilliant noon sun blazes down on a man who is holding a palette and palette knife, as if pledging his allegiance to the art of painting.