Young artist blends street graffiti with traditional ink wash painting

Chen Yingjie was born in 1991 in Foshan, South China's Guangdong Province. Influenced by his father, Chen started to learn Chinese ink wash painting techniques at the age of 3.

One day at high school, a friend gave Chen a spray can as a gift. From then on graffiti became another obsession. He would sneak out at night to paint graffiti and sneak back home at 1 or 2 am. During study in Singapore, Chen liked to visit art exhibitions and museums. It was there he decided to pursue his first passion of painting. Ink wash and graffiti fused naturally in his artworks.

In 2012 Chen was invited by automaker Volvo to create graffiti at Zurich train station. The artwork proved successful. "At that moment, I realized for the first time that combining Chinese ink painting with graffiti offered me the breakthrough and engine for me to move on in the career of art," Chen said.

In 2015, invited by Galerie F, Chicago's premier destination for street art, posters and collectibles, Chen held his first solo exhibition. His fame grew. Complex magazine described Chen as one of the "25 Chinese artists you must know." In 2020 he was selected for Forbes China "30 Under 30."

(Story by Huang Jingjing; Video source: Global People magazine)