Light Blue Shirt

From her surroundings, Cheng captures a gesture, a face: tightly pressed lips approaching a lighter, a man bringing his mouth to a jet of water, hands protecting the flame of a match, the coloured shadow of night on a face, a young man with his head in his hands... 

Born in 1989 in China and living between Shanghai and Paris, the artist tightens the frame and draws inspiration from photography to imagine small format paintings, scenes of encounters, intimate fragments, with a chiaroscuro tension. The artist represents ordinary situations, a sum of small gestures. She strives to capture halos, reflections, flames, bursts of water, as many unstable states that her painting depicts with an unsettling sensuality.

This work depicts a man drinking from a water fountain, bringing his mouth to a shimmering jet of water. The title of the work (Light Blue Shirt), shifts our attention to the variations of colours on the fabric of the shirt, drawing our gaze away from the scene and its strong erotic charge, making us witnesses of an intimate moment while pushing us away. The closely cropped framing reinforces this feeling of voyeurism.

This work by Xinyi Cheng is presented for the first time by the Pinault Collection in the exhibition "Ouverture" at the Bourse de Commerce in 2021.