Chen Fei’s narrative paintings are fantasized, often perverted constructs, in which elements from his personal life are transposed into surrealistic or hyperrealistic pastiches. While he belongs to the post-1980 generation of Chinese artists raised under the one-child policy, whose overall aesthetics were influenced by mainstream culture (notably manga and anime), Chen Fei is typically concerned with the self rather than with grand history.

A remarkably sharp sense of black humor informs his vibrant, ego-centered visions. Almost systematically exhibiting his own figure in his work, he satirically diverts the age-old tradition of self-portraiture to revisit Eastern and Western art-historical canons.

The highly graphic quality...