In His U.S. Solo Show Debut, Ling Jian Offers an Unlikely Pairing of Sirens and Sharks

A child of the Cultural Revolution in 1960s and ’70s China, Ling Jian’s earliest artistic pursuits, painting and singing with his sisters, were fostered within his family’s home in Shandong Province. Ling was later exposed to the world of Western art through a collection of books owned by his uncle, an architect. Upon seeing the works of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci for the first time, he was particularly intrigued by the Renaissance. “What impressed me most were the sculptures of the Renaissance, because those sculptures were all naked figures,” he has said. Discovering the Western ideals of beauty had a profound impact on Ling, who has, in his artistic practice since then, focused his career on exploring both eastern and Western notions of beauty.

These early investigations are evident in “Nature Chain,” Ling’s first solo show in the U.S., which is now on view at Klein Sun Gallery in New York. The show features two series of giant canvases, one focused on luminous Asian women and the other on similarly glowing visions of sharks—but at Ling’s hand, these subjects are realized in unexpected ways. Ling’s hyperrealistic female forms have an exaggerated delicacy to them, with empty gazes and translucent skin, appearing doll-like and almost lifeless. He refers to this series of beauties as the “Sirens,” and juxtaposes them with eerily human-like and erotic portrayals of sharks, pictured in the act mating or focused on sensual, suggestive body parts, upending the familiar, dangerous connotations we commonly apply to them. Bringing these two series together, Ling’s works touch upon the salient contemporary preoccupations with beauty and death, while at the same time, appealing to a voyeuristic sense of desire.