Newman Huo

    XU HONG finished his 14-meter oil painting in just one week prior to the start of the More Than Just a Copy: Showcase of Artists of Dafen Village exhibition, which opened at OCT Art & Design Gallery on Sept. 21.

    In his painting, “2010 Chinese People,” the 29-year-old painter based at Dafen Oil Painting Village depicts street scenes in the village: children playing games, people bargaining at the food market, and people playing mahjong.

    “My fortunes began to change after I moved to Dafen at the beginning of 2009,” said Xu, “I would be still suffering from starvation if I didn’t choose to move to the village and become a professional painter.”

    At Dafen, Xu focused on creating original paintings after spending time imitating Chinese and European paintings for commercial purposes.

    “I have to do some commercial paintings because they guarantee my three meals every day,” Xu said.

    “However, I will keep creating original paintings, even though I haven’t sold a single one so far,” he said.

    Born into a peasant family in a mountain village in Chongqing in 1981, Xu had to drop out of vocational high school in 1998 because of poverty. After that he left home, to make a humble living from various odd jobs.

    Xu is one of six Dafen painters showing original pieces at the joint exhibition at OCT Art & Design Gallery. The other painters are Wang Da, Chen Yupei, Li Quan, Yin Xunzhi and Huang Jianzong.

    “Doing cheap, quick and wholesale commercial paintings by imitating well-known European and Chinese masterpieces has formed a big and lucrative industry in Dafen Village and has attracted thousands of people to the oil painting village in recent years,” said Peng Jie, the exhibition’s organizer.

    “Through this exhibition, we wish to expose the dilemma some Dafen artists have faced, between the passive imitation required by the market, and free creation, which is required by original art,” he said.

    Chen Yupei’s series of portraits, “Chinese Patients,” includes famous Chinese figures from recent years, such as pop singer Li Yuchun, scholar Yu Qiuyu, and Yang Lijuan, a girl from Gansu Province who desperately wanted more than a meeting with her idol, Hong Kong pop star Andy Lau.

    Born in Chongqing in 1970, Chen graduated from the fine arts department of Chongqing Social University in 1995. He moved to Shenzhen in 2000 and settled down in Dafen Village in 2005. He set up his own workshop in 2006.

    “Although I have become very familiar with the working environment in Dafen, I can often feel the dilemma of living and working here,” Chen said.

    “As an ambitious artist, I hope to exhibit my personality and spirit through my own original pieces, but often I have to do commercial paintings to make a living because, after all, it is hard to sell original works here,” he said.

    Dates: Through Oct. 16

    Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Closed Monday

    Add: OCT Art & Design Gallery, Overseas Chinese Town (深圳华侨城华·美术馆)

    Metro: Hua Qiao Cheng Station (Overseas Chinese Town Station 华侨城站), Exit C