One of Chris Gill’s key accomplishment in China being the only living foreigner to have a solo exhibition at Shanghai Art Museum (2007). The show ‘City of Gold’ had 36,000 visitors.

Why gold? If you need to ask, you know little about China and nothing about Shanghai. This is a country obsessed by wealth and nowhere is hunger for riches greater than in the commercial capital. From the gold ingots sold on the streets of Shanghai to the government’s Golden Shield project, there is only one colour that counts. Forget red, these days it is gold that symbolises success, luck, and power. And it is gold that draws countless millions to this great city, where they hope to achieve the modern Chinese dream best expressed by former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping: “To be rich is glorious.”

This series of paintings shows how gold is colouring and shaping social change. It explores several issues that have recently drawn my attention. People prefer to mould themselves to fit the “norms” of the new society as they are projected in fashion magazines, on the internet and in popular TV shows. Some go so far as to change themselves physically so they can conform. Plastic surgeons have never been in greater demand.

This is the captivating story of artist Chris Gill or ‘Li Yunfei’ (Flying Cloud) as he is known in China.