Happy Soldier , 2011

Shen Jingdong is a contemporary artist, renowned for drawing inspiration from his home nation, China, with paintings and sculptures denoting traditional iconography. Jingdong’s recognition was quickly accelerated in 2008 with the unveiling of his Hero series, in which he subverted the traditional image of the soldier and various other icons of Chinese tradition - sometimes depicted in a range of expressive colours such as blue, red and green. Jingdong served in the Chinese army for 16 years and has frequently drawn on this experience as a means of expression – his Eight Route Army piece displays soldiers in an unorthodox light; he moves away from the typical notion of soldiers (violent, unfeeling, almost mechanical) and instead paints them with iconic images in mind such as children’s toy soldiers and the Japanese comic interpretation of them. (Artist website)