Zhang Enli, Chinese abstract painter who wasnࢀ™t boxed in by his early figurative art

Shanghai-based artist puts his early figurative art down to feelings of rage and anxiety, and says he has mellowed since. Now he calmly paints empty paper boxes In 2000, his artistic watershed, he began painting boxes, buckets and other containers as a reaction against a human fascination with spectacle Zhang Enli made dark, expressionistic paintings of Chinaࢀ™s urban underbelly long after peers such as Zeng Fanzhi moved on. Then he found realism and abstract art, and his career picked up. Zhang Enli is a Chinese artist whose 30-year career has often defied mainstream trends. When peers such as Zeng Fanzhi…