Feng Mengbo, Street Fighter IV, 1996. Oil on canvas
Feng Mengbo was born in Beijing, China 1966. He graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, printmaking department in 1992. His artwork career began one year after graduation. Feng grew up during three historical movements in Chinese history: the People’s Republic of China was established, the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, and China’s involvement by opening themselves up to the global economy. At a first glance Feng’s work seemed to be nothing more than what looked like to be a painting of a screen shot; but actually was a painting of an extremely popular video game series known as Street Fighter. Feng is a media artist, who was featured in Metamorphosis of the Virtual 5 + 5, 5 French Artists and 5 Chinese artists; Feng being one of them. Feng’s artwork was very influential because he took iconic video games and put himself and his own characters into it. He created his own virtual reality with each piece of art he made.
Works Cited
Eisman, April A. “eisman_playing With the Political.pdf.”
Gaskin, Sam. “Feng Mengbo Biography, Artworks & Exhibitions.” Ocula the Best in Contemporary Art Icon., 20 July 2014, https://ocula.com/artists/feng-mengbo/.
Sheri Lullo
What is Metamorphosis of the Virtual 5 + 5? Was that an important exhibition? I think for your project, you should think about what it means to shape art around the video game experience. In video games, a player controls or manipulates the figures on the screen. How does Feng make this a compelling idea for his art? And what does it mean when he actually inserts himself into the game?