Cao Li is a contemporary Chinese artist whose paintings, like poetry, are combinations of the imaginary and reality. Sometimes he feels as if he lives in a dream world, his paintings being a reflection of this world. The recurrent themes in Cao Li's paintings are the horse, the birds, the musicians and the naked figure; the horse because he is born the Year of the Horse, the birds because they represent the absolute freedom, the musicians because he has not been one since childhood, and the naked character because for him he represents the dream state. He focuses on the angularity of horse bodies while drawing inspiration from a unique Chinese device practiced in traditional brush painting that allows the viewer to see the sub...