Ma Ke

马轲

“I would like to find my own place in our space and our time.”

Ma Ke (b. Zibo, China, 1970; lives and works in Beijing) learned how to paint from his father, who blended the influences of Chinese traditions and Russian socialist realism. It was not until later that he discovered the Western exponents of classic modernism, whose works subsequently informed his own creations as well. Ma Ke’s painting captivates with lucid expression and subtle power. His motifs—humans in settings filled with an air of adventure and challenge, with props that are sometimes menacing—have something of theatrical scenes. Bodies and faces figure prominently in often dramatic mise-en-scènes, their unnaturally distorted and expressive features masklike, a grotesque quality that makes them only the more recognizable and haunting.

The monograph is the first book to present a comprehensive survey of the artist’s oeuvre. With a text by Hu Tao.