IR-14

About IR-14

This contemporary figurative nude painting is by an Asian artist.

His artwork has been sold at the prestigious 175-year-old Waddington’s Auction house in Toronto. Mafu Jiang’s contemporary compositions are rooted in his rich Chinese heritage. This is one of a series of acrylic paintings that features a naked, faceless male figure sitting cross-legged with his arms wrapped around his knees. Rendered in a neutral palette of creamy whites, gray and black, the surface is visibly textured. The patterned backdrop belies Jiang’s education as a graphic designer.

“Mafu’s paintings… may bring to the viewer’s mind a sense of tranquillity, peace, and meditation, an attempt to find the balance of Yin-Yang, of Tao.... But another look, from the other side, reveals tension between process and presentation, between meaning and expression, between movement and stillness. Mafu’s works are the utterances of veiled frustration.” Rafi Ghanaghounian

Mafu Jiang was born into a military family in Nanjing, China, on January 1, 1963. By the age of 25, his work was critically acclaimed in China. In 1988, he held a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Beijing. Shortly after this exhibition, Jiang left China for Belgium, where he studied and taught art at the Belgium National Higher Institute for Fine Arts of Antwerp. His artwork has been exhibited internationally, in Europe, Canada and the U.S. In 1997, Jiang moved to Toronto to pursue a career in graphic design.