Since Chinese artist Jiji let loose his “Grumpy Panda” character in 2000, he has been garnering fan-love from a range of global tastemakers –Anna Wintour, Ines de la Fressange, Pharrell Williams and Kanye West were all spotted at his recent exhibition at Paris’s Palais de Tokyo. Jiji’s cartoon muse—obsessively reproduced across his paintings and sculptures, as well as in his Hello Panda fashion line—is a symbol of China’s youth, a vibrant generation growing up with radically different values to their forbears. New works from Jiji are here accompanied by “The Light of Shanghai”— a collaborative track by Shanghai hip-hop crews Dogg Tribe, DBG Represent and TBC Crew, selected by Jiji from his 2008 compilation for his record label, Hi Music.
Left to right: Charger, 2010; Eyes, 2010; Oriental Pearl, 2010
All images © Jiji Studio, 2010