Under the Lighting Oil on Canvas 254x200cm   Deer Oil on Canvas 254x200cm   Three Tigers Oil on Canvas 200x150cm 2008 On Fire Oil on Canvas 200x143cm 2008   Man & Woman Oil on Canvas 200x150cm 2008   Fishing on Ice Oil on Canvas 145x115cm Moon Light Silkscreen 65.5x50cm 2010 Horse Silkscreen 59.9x52cm 2009 Breath Silkscreen 71.5x49.5cm 2009 People with Train Toys Silkscreen 95.8x69.5cm 2010 Rakish Donkey Silkscreen 53x47.5cm 2010 Fly Silkscreen 45.5x69cm 2009		Ma Ke's early experience teaching at the art academy gave him a taste of spiritual inhibition. During his one year teaching in Africa, Ma Ke absorbed the vigor of primitive art, and witnessed war and poverty. These painful experiences ingrained free will and spiritual rebellion into his blood. The unsettled people in his obscure narratives are sometimes frantic, sometimes aloof, with unruly and provocative expressions. He is obsessed with subverting painting methodology, and repeatedly adjusts his paintings, opening himself towards the unknown realm of painting within mistakes and serendipity. Artist's Statements: Ma Ke (born 1970, painting for 22 years) I can't understand the zeal people had for politics during the Cultural Revolution. I vaguely remember the marchers in the streets with their red flags from my youth, with a terrifying atmosphere concealed beneath the cold. Looking now at issues of Fine Art magazine from the time, they seem to be nothing more than advertisement catalogues for political concepts. My motivation for painting comes from my doubts and estrangement from reality. The path back to my spiritual homeland meandered through the labyrinth of western painting; only the far journeys are homeward bound, through Repin, Van Gogh, Duchamp, Picasso, De Koenig, Pollock, Bacon, Baselitz, Kiefer, Clemente and Neo Rauch, then a yearning to return to the artistic stylings of the Tang and Song, as well as the Qin. Today we mostly observe society and nature through film. The staging of film is my concept for making an initial clearing up of painting. The rocks play mountains, bonsai trees play trees, a hanging painting is a stage, rather than a window. The act of appreciating a painting is like watching a drama of the landscape from indoors, a path that crosses through spontaneity. When it comes to drama, painting is a path, a manifestation of the highest path. Ma Ke (1970~) Currently independent painter working in Beijing. 1994-2002 Lecturer at Oil Painting Dept., TianJing Academy of Fine Art 1998-1999 Cultural exchange program with Chinese Ministry of Culture in Eritrea, Africa Education: 1994 BA in Oil Painting, TianJing Academy of Fine Art 2005 MA in Oil Painting, Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing Award: Luo ZhongLi Oil Painting Scholarship Solo Shows: 1999 Ma Ke's Paintings, Museum of TianJing Academy of Fine Art 2003 People in Pagoda, Yan Huang Museum, Beijing 2006 Made by Make, ShangHai Museum