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'Wait and see. I definitely will become a damn great artist!'

ONE unconventional young artist conceals things in oil paintings, another creates dark animation about the life of coal miners. Both tell Wang Jie that they're going to be great artists

Huang Kui likes to play tricks and hide things in his oil paintings. "I don't mind if the viewers are deceived," says the 32-year-old artist. "I just do it for myself."

Another work hides something. "You Don't Know the Scene Behind the Scene" features a panoramic view from his studio balcony at 50 Moganshan Road, an artists' hub.

But part of the view is blocked by a prominent piece of white paper fluttering in the air °??? it obscures part of the view. But whatever is obscured is what really interests the artist, and he's not telling.

"Only I can see the scene behind the scene," Huang says.

"Why should viewers be completely clear about what I am painting?" he asks. "First, that's impossible. Second, it's no fun."

Born in 1977 in a small village in Sichuan Province, Huang went on to graduate in 2000 from the oil painting department at Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts.

He says he applied to the academy because "we were told that the artists there could make big money."

That didn't happen.

He and his classmates had to find real jobs to make a living. Huang became an art teacher at a private school in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, earning 20,000 yuan (US$2,926) a year.

The tranquil southern China town couldn't satisfy his ambitions or give him space to express his defiance and individuality.

In 2000 he headed to Shanghai where he hardly knew anyone. He first worked as a draftsman at an advertising company, and he says that "trained my social skills."

Gradually he joined the art community, and produced many startling works, including performance art. In one he stands naked in a bulletproof glass case, drinking and throwing bottles against the glass.

"As I look back today, I find that I really have matured," Huang says.

His recent online video works show Huang giving tickets to jaywalkers and other scofflaws. He gets a lot of clicks.

One of his pieces - an electronic scale that weighs visitors and adds up cumulative weights - was chosen for the 2006 Shanghai Biennale "HyperDesign."

"Sometimes I have marvelous ideas but I really need some financial support for those technical issues," he says. "I have almost no one to turn to."

Sometimes he designs for Websites and printing companies or sells paintings to help fund his ambitions in alternative media.

"Wait and see, I definitely will become a damn great artist one day," he declares. "I hope that I won't be rich in 10 years, because my works go far beyond the present era and it takes time to appreciate them.

"In other words, I will be damn rich in 20 years." Huang Kui

Born in 1977 in Renshou County, Sichuan Province

Graduated from oil painting department of Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 2000

His work "HyperDesign" exhibited at the Shanghai Biennale in 2006 '



 

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