CHEN Qi was born in 1963 in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China. He graduated from Nanjing Academy of Fine Arts in 1987 and received a doctoral degree from Nanjing Academy of Fine Arts in 2006, Chen Qi currently serves as Professor at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. In the solo exhibition The Notation of Time – Exhibition of CHEN Qi’s Art (National Museum of China, Beijing, 2013), Chen Qi attracted major international attention. The artist has been awarded many prices on a national and international level, including a Gold medal at the 13th National Print Exhibition in 1996 in Beijing. He has exhibited in Europe and Asia, including Paris, Geneva, Kuala Lumpur and New Delhi and was one of the four contemporary Chinese artists representing China at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Today his works are collected in the National Art Museum of China (Beijing), Shanghai Art Museum (Shanghai), Guangdong Museum of Art (Guangzhou), Jiangsu Art Museum (Nanjing), The British Museum (London), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Ashmolean Museum (Oxford), and the Fukuoka Art Museum (Fukuoka). While having recently ventured into other media, Chen mostly produces monochrome prints enhanced by the subtle use of water-soluble ink, using traditional woodblock printmaking methods. His works often show a single object at close view depicting its surface texture and material qualities in the reflection of light giving his subjects a magic aura.