Green Dog #1, 2006

With works that could be described as a crossover between Social Realism and Western Modernism, Zhou Chunya is a unique artist, renowned for his nature-centric works, including his most notable Green Dog series. Initially, Chunya was trained to create works that would serve as propaganda during the Cultural Revolution; he also travelled to Tibet around this time and compiled a series of paintings depicting the lives of Nomads within the area. He eventually went on to embrace the outputs of Western art, notably German expressionism – this can be seen in the aforementioned Green Dog series, a collection of paintings depicting his own German Shepherd Dog; the work is known to be borne from a deep love for his pet, and also an expression of Chunya himself – a self-portrait of kinds. Later in his career, Chunya returned to his roots by combining the traditional images of Chinese peach blossoms alongside embracing figures of opposing sexes – a nod to the newly-liberal take on sexuality.