C P Gill – Monkey Brain Giclee Print (1/8) 40cm x 40cm

Monkey Brain

Giclee Print (1/8) 40cm x 40cm                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Chris P Gill

CP Gill, known in China as “Li Yunfei” (Flying Cloud), is a British Neo-Expressionist artist and journalist who played a significant, often overlooked role in the development of Chinese contemporary art from the early 1990s onward.

Born in Burnley in 1970 and raised in Johannesburg, Gill studied fine art before reading Politics at Newcastle University. In 1992 he arrived in Beijing, where he opened his first studio in the legendary Yuanminyuan Artists' Village, embedding himself in China's emerging contemporary art scene as both participant and witness.

Moving to Shanghai in 1997, Gill spent nearly two decades documenting the extraordinary transformation of a city, and a society, remaking itself at remarkable speed. Working simultaneously as China correspondent for The Guardian and Asia correspondent for The Art Newspaper, his journalism and his painting fed one another directly. In 2007 he became the only living foreign artist to hold a solo exhibition at the Shanghai Art Museum.

His work across mixed media, oil, drawings, collage, and found materials functions as a personal visual diary of that era, capturing the collision of cultures, ideologies, and identities unfolding around him daily.

Diagnosed with MS in 2010, Gill returned to the UK in 2014 as his eyesight deteriorated severely. Now painting with almost no sight, he continues to create with his work increasingly shaped by themes of resilience, memory, and social change.