Foot ARX LEE (LI CHAOXIONG)

Buda-Pest Series

This series the painter and cartoonist Li Chaoxiong published in 2010. An original comic book style
poetic and phantasmagoric graphic that tells the story of an amnesiac puppet immersed in the heart of a world populated by strange creatures. During a long initiatory journey, this fragile and tormented being gradually discovers a post-apocalyptic world where objects speak and are endowed with human qualities. Over the course of his encounters, he will learn to grow and overcome the obstacles that stand before him and thus find the courage to cross the huge "Hat" bridge, the ultimate metaphor for the psychological barriers that we create for ourselves in the face of reality, to to be able to join the one he loves. Through this comic strip which reflects the ineluctable desire of human beings for contemporary worlds of consumption, LI Chaoxiong expresses his ironic look at the sad and ridiculous contradictions of today's societies. However, he also gives pride of place to love, a timeless hope which, in his eyes, represents the salvation of humanity. Inspired by this same universe of "BudaPest" where the characters see themselves projected into unreal landscapes and where the objects become eternal and precious, these paintings are adorned with slogans that fully reveal the artist's aspiration for a world where we can enjoy the unspeakable: "Time is beautiful", "Dreamer is Beautiful", "And you are Beautiful too"... Here again the image and the text merge to project us into the heart of touching works and singular. "Buda", an amnesiac lunar puppet madly in love with her female counterpart "Pest", herself lost on the other side of a decomposing world. At Buda, it is nostalgia and naivety that predominate, gentleness and contemplation as well, in the face of a world in perdition where everything has to be rebuilt.

PUBLICATIONS

- Buda Pest (Story book), Wiber créations, Ed.Fr. Editions LOFT, 2010

- Arx Lee, Oil Paintings of Budapest Series, 2012

- Dreamer Is Beautiful, Catalog of paintings and drawings from 3 series, Shenzhen, China, 2013

ARTIST

Li Chaoxiong, alias ARX LEE, is a Chinese artist who was born in 1978 in Zhongshan, Canton. In the end of 1990s, he begun to present his early works in group exhibitions in Canton, Beijing and Japan (5th International Exhibition of the Japan Art Academy in 1997). Hence, he started studying at Guangzhou Fine Art School and graduated in 2002. He is as well the author of two poetic and introspective graphic novels: Bilibi in early 2000s and Buda-Pest in 2010, the last one published in three languages and the theme of an exhibition at the Galerie Loft, Paris.

Since his childhood, the artist is immersed in the world of superheroes, cartoons and illustration. Developing his style in different artistic disciplines, such as painting, illustration, design, sculpture and photography, Li has gradually found his own language and mastered the codes of literary narration and of plastic and digital composition. Undoubtedly his unique painting style and figurative language are representative of what China has best to offer among the young generation.

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