Art Statements Gallery is delighted to announce the first exhibition of the Chinese Contemporary artist He An in Hong Kong. He An was born 1971 in Wuhan, China and lives and works in Beijing. He recently participated in the mega show ‘The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China’ at Tate Liverpool in UK on exhibition July 18th – August 31st .As one of the most promising young Chinese contemporary artists working today, He often draws his inspirations directly from various phenomenon championed by mainstream and local media in China, exploring and questioning the bizarre and obsessive relationships between the Chinese media and its information-crazed audience, focusing on the rather outrageous and sensational stories that are commonly perceived by many as entertainment whilst exposing the underbelly of China’s recent economic boom.The exhibition will include a selection of his recent works, from installations and photographs to oil paintings. They examine the nature of how Chinese society and culture are colored with deception, sensationalism, obsession, sexual desire and violence. He’s art underscores how these messages are endorsed by the media, such as his piece ‘Girl Raped by Alien’, a photographic recreation of a fictionalized news article published by a local newspaper in Wuhan. In ‘2005’s Love: I Love He Jie/ He Jie Loves Me’, He presents a tongue-in-cheek installation that is a “how-to” six steps guide for switching his own body in painstaking detail with that of He Jie, a female contestant on the Chinese equivalent of the ‘American Idol’ singing contest that is watched by millions. The piece exaggerates yet highlights how a celebrity-obsessed culture is becoming a social norm in Mainland China. He also tackles the growing materialism of his context. With international brand names aggressively invading China’s market and its media space, He replaces celebrities with real life beggars from the streets of Beijing in his ‘Nike & Adidas’ series. The positive slogans strongly reinforce the ironic and cruel truth behind China’s newborn glossy fa?ade, exposing a deluded reality constructed by greed and media frenzy. He An has participated in numerous exhibitions in Mainland China and abroad, including ‘Documentary Exhibition of Chinese Avant-Garde Art in the1990’s’ at the Fukuoka Art Museum in Japan and ‘The Nirvana of Temporality (The Other Shore of This Shore)’ at the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China.