陈可 Chen Ke丨女性的成长 Female Maturation
Frida Wearing a Neckguard, 2013, Acrylic on canvas, 40x50cm
戴护脖的弗里达，布上丙烯
Born in 1978 in Tong Jiang, Sichuan Province, Chen Ke is a young contemporary Chinese artist who now lives in Beijing. She graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute with both undergraduate and graduate degrees, where she received systematic education in painting. The free artistic atmosphere of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute made it possible for Chen to express herself in the form of cartoon oil painting.
陈可，1978年出生于四川通江，现生活于北京。陈可是中国当代青年艺术家，本科和研究生都毕业于四川美术学院油画系，并在那里接受了系统的绘画教育。四川美术学院自由的艺术氛围，让陈可能够用卡通油画的绘画形式来表达自我。
Chen Ke finished her first early works around 2007. Instead of projecting her own feelings to "the other" later, these early works were more of an inward exploration, a reflection of her inner world in her paintings. In her paintings of that time, there was often an image of a thin little girl with a round nose, which Chen said was herself in the paintings.
2007年前后陈可完成了自己的第一批早期作品。不同于之后将自我的情感投射给“他者”，这些早期作品更多是向内探究的，是她内心世界在绘画中的一种反映。在她那时的画中，经常出现一个圆鼻头的瘦弱小女孩形象，陈可说这就是她在画中的代言人。
Chen Ke 陈可. Photo 图片：Donglin
At that time, Chen Ke was obsessed with the spiritual world of travel, music, and reading, and the little girl in the painting was sad, tender, and lonely. When Chen Ke was in college, she often closed herself up and lost herself in her own little universe. She did not want to be disturbed too much by the outside world. "Loneliness" was almost the theme of her paintings at that stage.
那时候的陈可痴迷于旅行、音乐、阅读的精神世界，画中的小女孩也是忧郁、温柔、孤独又悲伤。大学阶段的陈可经常把自己封闭起来，沉迷于自己的小小宇宙，不希望受到外界太多的干扰，“忧郁”几乎是那个阶段的绘画主题。
This symbolic work has a melancholy appeal, but it also caused Chen Ke to be labeled as the "cartoon generation" by the outside world. Chen Ke does not like this label and does not want to be regarded as a child who will never grow up. She is eager to make breakthroughs and hopes to find new ways to express his growing self.
这个具有符号性的作品，有一种忧郁的感染力，却也让陈可被外界贴上了“卡通一代”的标签。陈可并不喜欢这样的标签，她并不希望一直被视作一个永远长不大的孩子。陈可渴望突破，希望找到新的方式来表达不断成长的自己。
Sensitive nerve,2006, oil on canvas, 160×160cm.
敏感神经，布面油画
Coming Storm,2007, oil on canvas, 50×50cm.
暴风来临，布面油画
Now, more than a decade later, when Chen Ke reviews her earlier paintings, she has another feeling: "They are clean, direct, and have a kind of clarity that expresses one's feelings. Every stage is a record of the real mood at that moment, and some things can't be painted after that." But at that time Chen Ke did not have such a feeling, she was hoping to break through the outside to her stereotypical view.
虽然在十几年之后的今天，当陈可重新审视自己早期的画作时，有了另一种感慨：“那批作品干净、直接，有一种直抒胸臆的利落。每个阶段都是对当时真实心情的记录，有些东西过了那个劲儿就再也画不出来了。”但当时的陈可还没有这样的感觉，她当时非常希望突破外界对她一成不变的看法。
Since then, Chen Ke has tried to break away from the past and create new forms of painting. What really changed Chen Ke's thinking and made a breakthrough was the birth of her daughter in 2012. The joy of new life and the busyness of being a mother made her start to think about the relationship between art and life. Children really are God's gift to their parents.
从那时起陈可开始试图告别过去，创造新的绘画形式。真正让陈可思路发生转变和突破的，是2012年女儿的出生。新生命出现的欣喜和作为母亲角色的忙碌，都让她重新开始思考艺术与生命的关系。所以说，孩子真的是上帝送给父母的礼物。
1953·27岁，木板油画，42x30cm，2016
1955年·纽约·29岁，布面油画，200x130cm，2016
"I used to be a very egoistic person, but when I had a baby it shifted the focus...Now I think life is very important, and art should help me to live a better life, not hinder me." Chen said. Henceforth, after 2012, Chen Ke began to create works with real historical figures such as Marilyn Monroe, to express her experience and thinking about gender, life, age, family, and so on as an ordinary person.
前我是一个很自我的人，有了孩子之后生活的中心发生了转移……我现在觉得生活很重要，艺术应该是能帮助自己更好的生活，而不应该是阻碍。”陈可说。所以2012年之后，陈可开始以梦露等历史上真实的人物为创作对象，表达她作为普通人对性别、生活、年龄、家庭等的体验和思考。
Although the new painting style seems to be far from the previous cartoon painting, this shift in theme is also consistent with Chen Ke's consistent: there has never been a so-called long-term plan on her artistic path, and there is no such thing as entering a new theme. After hesitating, she is always eager to change and inject new vitality into her work and life. And in the constant change, the unchanging things that have settled down form the true vein of Chen Ke's life.
虽然新的绘画风格与之前的卡通绘画看似相去甚远，但这种主题的跳跃也是了陈可的一贯性格：在她的艺术道路上从来没有所谓的长期规划，也没那种进入新主题时的犹豫，她永远渴望改变和新的活力注入到自己的作品与人生中来。而且在不停的改变之中，沉淀下来的不变的东西，构成了陈可真正的人生脉络。
Chen Ke’s studio. 陈可工作室
This year, from June 15 to August 14, Chen Ke's latest solo exhibition, “Bauhaus Gal/Room” is being exhibited at Perrotin, Shanghai. The exhibition features two seemingly different series of paintings: Bauhaus Gal (figurative portraits on canvas) and Room (abstract shaped aluminum plates). These are Chen Ke's new creations in the last two years, continuing her focus on feminism and space. Compared to the previous works, the new style is more mature, shows warm colors and hard brushstrokes that bring the audience a sense of tenderness and power together.
今年，也就是6月15号到8月14号，她的最近个展”包豪斯之家/房间”正在上海贝浩登进行。展览展出了两个看似不同的绘画系列：Bauhaus Gal（画布上的具象肖像）和Room（抽象形状的铝板）。这些都是陈可在最近两年的新的创作，延续了她对女性和空间的关注。相比之前，新的作品风格更加成熟，温暖的色调和坚硬的笔触能把温柔与力量的感觉一同带给观众。
Bauhaus Gal No.13, 2021，Oil on canvas，80 × 120 cm | 31 1/2 × 47 1/4 inch
包豪斯画廊13号
Bauhaus Gal No.11, 2021，Oil on canvas，100 × 80 cm | 39 3/8 × 31 1/2 inch
包豪斯画廊11号
“The motivation for the project comes from a photo album called "Bauhaus Mädels." The cover of the book is carried with a small line "A Tribute to Pioneering Women Artist,” and the title page says, "Girls Want to Learn Something." This book records the files of some female students who once studied at the Bauhaus. It contains their portraits with simple life experiences. Before that, I didn't expect that so many women had studied in Bauhaus. The faces of young girls in the book resemble the rising sun. They are fresh, independent, confident, and full of expectations for the future. We can see that for the first time, women appearing in a bold and avant-garde posture, and their appearance is extremely forward-looking, far beyond its era. It coincides with the wave of female independence that is emerging all over the world today. In them, I seem to identify the shadow of me at the age of 20 and also see the difficult grew-up process of women with their surroundings. I want to translate these faces to record the transience and eternity of life, the speed, and slowness of time."
“该项目的动机来自一本名为“Bauhaus Mädels”的相册。书的封面上有一行小字“向先锋女艺术家致敬”，扉页写着“女孩想学点东西”。这本书记录了一些曾在包豪斯学习的女学生的档案。里面有她们简单的人生经历写照，在此之前，没想到有这么多女性在包豪斯学习过，书中少女的脸庞就像初升的太阳，清新、独立、自信、充满活力。对未来的期待。我们可以看到，女性第一次以大胆前卫的姿态出现，她们的外表极具前瞻性，远远超越了那个时代。这与当今世界各地正在兴起的女性独立浪潮不谋而合。在他们身上，我似乎认出了20岁的自己的影子，也看到了女性与周围人艰难的成长过程。我想翻译这些面孔，记录生命的短暂与永恒，时间的快慢“
— Chen Ke on her latest project 这是陈可对这个最新项目的介绍
Bauhaus Gal No.8, 2021，Oil on canvas，160 × 120 cm | 63 × 47 1/4 inch 包豪斯画廊8号
No.1, 2021，Oil on canvas，130 × 200 cm | 51 3/16 × 78 3/4 inch
The vision of contemporary feminist paintings is often limited because of the excessive emphasis on feminine character, but Chen Ke has overcome this point well. In both her earlier work and the latest two years in her exhibition, she expresses her own feelings about the world around her as an ordinary member of life, rather than emphasizing the differences between women and men. Artists are also ordinary people. Chen can use painting to express what she saw and thought as an ordinary person growing up, which is why her artistic life has strong vitality and a broad future. Artists are also ordinary people. Chen can use painting to express what she saw and thought as an ordinary person growing up, which is why her artistic life has strong vitality and a broad future.
当代女性主义绘画，经常因为过分突出女性色彩而使其视野与力量受到局限，但是陈可很好地克服了这一点。不管是早期的作品，还是陈可最新展览中这两年的作品中，她表达的都是自己作为生活中的一份子对人生周遭的感受，而非强调女性与男性的差别。艺术家也是普通人，陈可用绘画的方式去表达自己作为普通人一路成长的所见所想，这也是为什么她的艺术人生有着强劲的生命力和广阔的未来。
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