The play of the past in the present is apparent in the works of Chen Ke. Depicting a scene "similar to fragmented memories of tainted photographs," she inserts what we might consider the child-like persona of the artist into the canvas, gazing at the flash light in her arm against an abstract terrain. Despite her characteristic lightheartedness and naivet?, Chen is also able to underline the sense of solitude or melancholy, engaging the audience into the pleasure of contemplation and in appreciating complexity. With images such as these, whimsical and yet forlorn personal parables, Chen has quickly established herself as one of the more sensitive and original of China's latest young generation of painters.