As with the painter, so with the painting: like his paintings, Jiao Xiaojian is lively and astute, sincere, relaxed, and inspirational. As an artist, his sensitivity towards his surroundings contributes to the intelligence and harmony of his paintings. Actually, ever since Jiao came under the influence of figurative expressionism in the mid 1990s, his work has undergone a gradual transformation. Since then, he has always painted from life, using firsthand observation to get as close to nature as possible, and to stimulate his studies of modern visual perception. But unlike other art done from life, Jiao’s fresh style originates in his blending with his object. It amounts to an honest, unadorned revealing, in realistic language, of his thoughts on contemporary culture and his filtered visual perceptions, unique qualities which are on display here in these pieces. The cultural sophistication that pervades his work – refreshingly obscure, effortlessly refined, inexhaustible – is particularly valuable “in modern times”.