Born in 1968 in Shandong province, Ling Jian studied fine arts at the Qinghua University Art College in Beijing. After completing his degree in 1987 he left China for an atelier in Vienna, then Hamburg and Berlin, where has continued to work and live.  Yet never far from his homeland, his work has been dominated by an exploration of Chinese political and social life in one of its most historic moments.

Known for his bold portraits of Chinese women (large in size and usually limited to his subjects visage), his art has captured both the best and worst in the social legacy left by China’s communist leaders. In his famous series of works titled Communist Sister and the latest Don't love beauty, love army's power, inspired by a Mao’s quote, he depicts in a provocative and tempestuous style, the idealized and fictionalized image of the Chinese Communist Sister. Creating a composition simple in construction but technically brilliant, Ling Jian, who experienced the Cultural Revolution in his childhood, poses questions about the depth behind superficiality and the reality behind appearance.

Underneath this exploration of the body’s identity lies the wider social context within which he situates his art. Ling Jian, like many of his contemporaries, seeks reconciliation between the China of the past and the China of the present – and does so through examining its role and its effect in the life of women.  More than merely exploring physical identity, he brings to the fore an introverted image of the female Communist loyalist.  By manipulating her identity and making her into a beautiful, highly sexualized individual, he subverts her original identity as a modest and unassuming girl-child. In creating his own ‘communist sister’ Ling Jian is addressing the greater cultural and political manipulation this type of government had on China’s population.