Artwork Description

Title: Pet Series
Artist: Li Ji
Date: 2007
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 82.7 × 70.9 in (210 × 180 cm)

1. Artwork Identification
This provocative work by contemporary Chinese artist Li Ji belongs to his ongoing Pet Series, executed in 2007. The painting presents a striking full-length portrait of a woman standing confidently in lingerie, juxtaposed against a vivid orange-red background. At her feet sits a small, white dog clad in a blue dress. With meticulous attention to the figure's contours and bold use of contrasting hues, Li Ji creates a surreal tableau that evokes questions of identity, objectification, and contemporary culture.

2. Artistic Style and Influences
Li Ji’s Pet Series is characterized by its blend of social satire and surreal figuration. Rooted in Chinese Cynical Realism and Post-Pop visual strategies, his work often features exaggerated bodies, theatrical costumes, and unsettling emotional ambiguity. The flat, vibrant color fields and stylized figures recall the bold palettes of Zhang Xiaogang or Yue Minjun, yet Li’s language is more intimate, focused on domestic space, gender roles, and interpersonal power dynamics. His technique, which combines precision drawing with painterly flourishes, creates an unsettling balance between realism and absurdity.

3. Historical Context
Created in the wake of China’s rapid urbanization and socio-cultural transformation during the early 2000s, Pet Series reflects the complexities of identity and materialism in a shifting society. As fashion, media, and global consumerism began to influence personal identity more explicitly, artists like Li Ji used painting to explore these themes. The figure's overt self-display, paired with the dressed-up dog, hints at a commentary on vanity, commodification of the body, and the blurred boundaries between pet, performer, and persona.

4. Provenance
Provenance documentation can be provided upon contact.

5. Condition and Conservation
The artwork is reported to be in very good condition. The canvas remains taut, and the paint surface is clean and stable, with no visible signs of cracking, discoloration, or restoration. The intense color saturation is well-preserved, and there is no indication of conservation work needed at this time.

6. Artistic Significance
Li Ji’s Pet Series is an incisive body of work that invites critical reflection on gender, consumerism, and domestic symbolism in modern Chinese society. The 2007 painting stands as a testament to his mature style—poised between satire and sincerity. His idiosyncratic iconography and psychological intensity position him as a significant figure within the Chinese contemporary art scene, especially among artists interrogating the effects of post-socialist capitalism and shifting moral landscapes. This painting would make a compelling and culturally resonant addition to any contemporary art collection.