Fang Lijun

Fang Lijun graduated from the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1989. He currently lives and works in Beijing as a professional artist.

As one of the leading figures associated with China’s Post-1989 New Art movement, Fang Lijun helped develop a distinctive artistic language alongside his contemporaries, known as Cynical Realism. Since 1988, his series of works featuring the iconic image of the bald, rebellious figure has become a defining visual symbol in contemporary Chinese art. These works reflect the pervasive sense of ennui, irreverent humor, and lived experience in China from the late 1980s through the first half of the 1990s, while also expressing broader psychological and existential sensibilities of contemporary life.