Red Gate Gallery

Su Xinping Lithographs

by Tally Beck

Su Xinping’s Cynical Realist works carry a haunting weightiness. His paintings and prints borrow stylistically from the Socialist Realist propaganda posters of a previous generation but subvert their idealism through figure distortion while maintaining a sense of sculptural solidity. His moody compositions emphasise loneliness, disenchantment and alienation. While he maintains the gravitas of his early works, there is an increasing sense of optimism and redemption expressed through a warmer palette and subject matter that suggests a sense of camaraderie and belonging.