Artist Li Tianbing @ Stephen Friedman Gallery

The controversial work of Chinese artist Li Tianbing is currently being exhibited at London’s Stephen Friedman Gallery.

Tianbing’s work explores the loneliness of being an only child, a problem for many children of his generation since he was born 5 years before the introduction of China’s ‘one child per family’ policy. His images also convey lots of political metaphors – the deteoriating surfaces of his paintings reflect the decaying Khmer Rouge posters he once saw, and there are loudspeaker motifs to signify political propaganda broadcasts as well as toys (which were rare gifts for Chinese children in the 1970s due the difficult in just meeting a family’s basic needs).

I’ve reproduced one of his pictures below – I think you’ll agree its rather powerful. You can go along to see his work up to the 21 April at the gallery, which is on Old Burlington St in London’s West End.