Zhuang Hong-yi
1962, China
Zhuang Hong Yi is one of China’s most influential artists. Characterized by a daringly bold colour palette, Hong Yi's sophisticated, repetitive and precise floral motifs reflect both his Chinese background and integrate a Western allure.
His floral hybrids evince an artist with genuine sensibility - the painstaking process of folded origami rice-paper layered with acrylic and oil paint belies an almost ascetic level of discipline. Hong Yi’s canvases blossom under the eye: appearing to move and thrive with the viewer, a beautifully defiant natural symbol in the face of aggressive global urbanisation.
Zhuang works in two dominant yet distinct mediums, creating what can be described as 3- dimensional paintings. His Flowerbed series is produced through painstakingly folded origami rice-paper flowers covered in colour-shifting layers of acrylic and oil paint. Hong Yi also implements a more traditional painterly approach through his Landscape series, applying acrylic in heavily sculpted and gestural impasto with unfolded rice-paper flowers.
