Artwork Description

Title: Story City No.2
Artist: Jianpeng Li
Date: 2017
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 23.6 x 31.5 in (60 x 80 cm)

1. Artwork Identification
This 2017 acrylic on canvas by Jianpeng Li presents a loosely rendered urban streetscape, capturing a quiet, sunlit intersection flanked by modernist apartment buildings and electrical lines crisscrossing the sky. The painterly brushwork, subtle tonal variations, and architectural forms give the work a fleeting, almost cinematic quality—conveying the mood of an ordinary moment suspended in time.

2. Artistic Style and Influences
Jianpeng Li’s style navigates the space between observational realism and expressive impressionism. Through gestural strokes and an intentionally limited palette, the artist abstracts the details of the scene while preserving the atmosphere of place. Her work aligns with a lineage of contemporary Chinese painters who reinterpret urban subjects with immediacy and emotion, blending painterly spontaneity with architectural structure.

3. Historical Context
Painted in 2017, this work reflects a period of rapid urban expansion and transformation in China. As an artist born in Henan and academically trained in Shanghai, Li draws from personal and environmental observation to portray scenes of everyday life in transitional cityscapes. Her streetscapes offer a visual journal of lived experience within the context of China's evolving built environment, filtered through a lens of subtle introspection.

4. Provenance
Provenance documentation can be provided upon contact.

5. Condition and Conservation
The painting is in very good condition. The acrylic surface is stable and vibrant, with no visible cracks, losses, or signs of restoration. The canvas is taut and clean, and the work is ready for display.

6. Artistic Significance
Jianpeng Li represents a new generation of Chinese urban painters, whose works are marked by sensitivity to everyday scenes and a poetic engagement with their surroundings. As a full-time artist at the Wuxi Painting and Calligraphy Academy and a member of several prominent Chinese art associations, her career continues to rise. This work stands as a fine example of her ability to distill memory, motion, and place into expressive visual form—making it a thoughtful addition to contemporary figurative and urban landscape collections.