Chen Ke, born in 1978 in Sichuan, China, graduated from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and now lives and works in Beijing.
As one of the representatives of China's 'cartoon generation', the majority of Chen Ke's artworks are brightly coloured, uniquely shaped cartoon characters. The artistic style of Chen Ke is closely linked to her life experiences. In the early years of her artistic career, Chen Ke mainly expressed her dissatisfaction with the real world and her feelings about adolescence through cartoon girls in surreal scenes (Dinner, 2010). But as her identity changed and she became a mother, Chen Ke changed her creative style and approach. She bravely stepped out of her inner world and moved from observing herself to observing the outside world, and the protagonists of her artwork shifted from virtual little girls to real persons. Since 2011, Chen Ke has been working on the Frida series and Monroe series, which are based on biographies and photobooks of artists, litterateurs and actors. In addition to the differences in content, these artworks also experiment with classical Western oil painting techniques such as superimposition and glazing, resulting in a stronger sense of three-dimensionality and power.
Whether it is the "sad little girl" or the "confident Marilyn Monroe", the female perspective has always been a key feature of Chen Ke's artwork. Passionate about photography, Chen Ke is fond of the female photographers Cindy Sherman and Nan Goldin, who are known for their selfies, and admires their redefinition of female identity. Chen Ke once said, "I want to paint what I think the ideal woman should look like, tough, not weak". That is why none of her "Bauhaus girls" are weak, they are confident, edgy and dynamic(Bauhaus Girls No.12, 2021). The main characters in Chen Ke's artworks are mostly female. Through her artworks, she hopes to break the stereotypes of females in society and show the resilience and strength of females more comprehensively.