Jia Aili

Beijing-based contemporary artist, Jia Aili was born in Dandong, Liaoning Province in northeast China in 1979. Aili studied at Lu Xun Academy of Fine Art, one of the most important in China, and he is considered one of the top emerging artists of the day. He paints, sculpts and creates large-scale installations. During his residency at Graphicstudio, Aili was introduced to etching and other processes, resulting in his first print editions.

Red

In Red, Jia Aili manipulates an iconic, archival image of Vladimir Illyich Lenin (1870-1924), the Russian communist revolutionary, politician and theorist. In this image, Lenin is shown delivering a speech in Red Square on the celebration of the First Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Moscow, November 7, 1918. The artist’s red line etchings scrawled across the image create ambiguity as they echo the identification of the color with the communist movement.

Untitled

Famed Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei is the subject of this direct gravure/aquatint print. Jia Aili adds a whimsical note to his serious and somewhat somber portrait. The bright pink cat ears, nose and whiskers are a reference to Ai’s well known love of cats—he is said to live with over 40 of the felines in his Beijing studio home.

Forrest Gump in a Spaceship

Forrest Gump, the hero of the eponymous 1986 Winston Grooms novel and 1994 Robert Zemeckis film, is a popular fictional character in China, especially celebrated for his three-year running marathon. In both the novel and the film, Gump travels to China with the All-American Ping Pong team during the Ping Pong Diplomacy period of the early 1970s. However, this print portrays an adventure that only appears in the novel, in which astronaut Forrest rockets into space and later crash-lands in New Guinea where he is captured by a native tribe.

 

Further Resources

Artist's Site: kleinsungallery.com

Printmaking + Sculpture Terms

Printmaking Glossary

Sculpture Glossary

Sales

For sales, or more information about an edition, please contact Graphicstudio at (813) 974-3503 or gsoffice@usf.edu.

Copyright + Reproduction

Images of the artwork are jointly owned by the artist and Graphicstudio. Reproduction of any kind including electronic media must be expressly approved by Graphicstudio.