LOS ANGELES, CA.- Sotheby’s S|2 opens its first selling exhibition in Los Angeles of paintings by the renowned Beijing-based artist Li Jin, entitled Li Jin: A Devout Foodist's Journey to the West. On view 8 - 28 June, 2017, the exhibition is to the public in Sotheby’s Century City gallery space.

Li Jin is known for his sharp, witty and often irreverent observations of people, food, wine and places, taken from his travels around the world. During the summer of 2016 and the spring of 2017, Li Jin traveled to the United States, where he spent his time in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York. The artist produced 42 works — including ink paintings and sculptures — chronicling fast food, snacks, and elaborate meals shared with friends as well as encounters with interesting people, strolls through a snowy Central Park along with his observations during the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. He appears in many of the paintings, often with his cell phone constantly in use, to WeChat his latest food discovery or to record a scene he plans to revisit with ink and brush.

Mee-Seen Loong, Vice Chairman of Sotheby’s Chinese Art Department, in New York said: “In early spring this year, through sun, rain and snow, the renowned artist and 'devout foodist' Li Jin gamely journeyed through Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York. His was a disciplined tour de force of food binges, bracketed by stretches each day of painting — while memories were still fresh and the taste of good food still lingered. Los Angeles offered a smorgasbord of food delights, Las Vegas dealt many hands of fun and New York a jambalaya of delis, snowstorms and the loss of his passport, which delayed his return home but enabled him to experience once again the gaiety of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.”

Li Jin said: “As a Chinese artist experiencing the American way of life, I used the medium of ink to express this fresh and exotic feeling. I have painted myself in the works, along with things I love, like delicious food, beautiful women, and good wine! California or New York, I love them both! America brims with fun scenes and objects just waiting to be painted! I hope this exhibition will be recognized as such, and look forward to hearing people’s responses. Through my art, I hope to learn more about this place and make new friends. I also hope that the brightness and humor in my paintings will resonate deeply with Los Angeles and Hollywood.”

Born in Tianjin in 1958, Li Jin graduated from the painting department of the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in 1983 and is currently the Deputy Professor of the department. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in museums, galleries and auction houses around the world, including the Today Art Museum, Beijing, The Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Museum, The Victorian Artists Society, Melbourne, the Seattle Art Museum, Washington, the Hong Kong Museum, The Museum of Fine Art, Boston, and the National Art Museum of China.