Alex Chien (b.1994.) is an Athens based illustrator and painter. He has earned a BA degree in 3D animation at Middlesex University and has an MA in illustration from the Arts University of Bournemouth. He has exhibited across Greece, Spain and the UK. Alex’s work is influenced by graffiti lettering & character shapes, which led him onto developing his own personal aesthetic and painting line-less 3D pictures by using airbrush & acrylics. His fantasy world suggests cartoon like characters, often with bold colours and a strong narrative that enhances the audience’s interaction with the work into a more alive and comfortable experience.
The world Alex’s dinosaur characters live in, is one of nostalgia for the adventure-driven phantasmagoria of children’s cartoons. He combines a graphic realism with infantile playfulness and humour.
"The first thing that inspired me to create I think was cartoons on TV . I loved that in their “universe” there was no gravity no pain nothing, only adventure. I develop my stories from nowadays situations and I use animals in the place of people, in order to make the narrative funnier. I try to make paintings that will make the viewer happy and nostalgic. I use humour on every aspect of my life, so it comes naturally in the paintings as well. I don’t like nowadays pretentious seriousness. In the end by creating an alternate universe filled with my own version of characters gives you a godly kind of feeling. Every one is the creator of their own universe when painting.”
