Artist: Pi Kai

Pi Kai (China, b.1995) graduated with a master’s degree in printmaking from the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts and currently lives and works in Xi’an, China. Drawing inspiration from video game visuals, he creates new worlds composed of game backgrounds, characters, and plants. The composition of lines in his paintings divides the real and virtual worlds, with characters oscillating between the two. At times, they escape into the virtual realm to experience a beauty unattainable in the real world. This attempt to detach reflects the concealed relationship in contemporary society, where people shift their mental focus between reality and fiction. His works have been exhibited at the Xi’an Art Museum and Shanghai Suning Art Museum, among others.

As a post-90s artist, Pi Kai’s creative inspiration stems from video games. By integrating gaming elements with oil painting, he imbues his works with a “first-person perspective,” allowing viewers to experience the scenes and relationships within the artwork as if they were the characters. Breaking The Fourth Wall explores his endeavor to dismantle the boundaries between reality and the virtual. The term “breaking” signifies a swift and direct breakthrough, traversing or confronting challenges head-on. This fearless spirit echoes the artist’s approach to facing contemporary societal complexities. “Fourth wall” refers to the intersection between the virtual and the real, constructing a mental world where he believes “fighting in games mirrors the struggles of life.”

From surrealism to postmodern art, the exploration of the relationship between fiction and reality has been an enduring subject for artists and philosophers. Salvador Dalí’s dream distortions, René Magritte’s paradoxical spaces, Freud’s psychological model of the id, ego, and superego, Sartre’s existentialist concept of the self as an illusion, and Heidegger’s notion of Dasein as a being-in-becoming all delve into this interplay. Gaming, beyond entertainment, provides a medium to explore multiple selves, enabling players to inhabit roles, switch identities, and challenge the boundaries of selfhood. It offers a free space to experiment with existence, enriching one’s understanding of self and others. Pi Kai’s work situates itself within this discourse, with characters in his paintings seemingly leaping or pausing, lingering between the real and the virtual in dialogue. The virtual realm becomes both an emotional refuge and a reflection of resistance to and detachment from society.

Pi Kai’s creative process rejects preconceptions or drafts, emphasizing spontaneity and dynamic generation. His paintings begin as fragments, growing, overlapping, and spreading organically, akin to AI-generated visuals, until a complete image emerges. The fragmented information and imagery he records in daily life are randomly reconstructed into his scenes. Although the arrangement of elements seems random, they are all derived from memories, reflecting his multifaceted self. Technically, he employs the rich texture of oil painting, using lines, color blocks, and spatial divisions to construct multidimensional scenes. Through selective enhancement of character dynamics, background layers, and chiaroscuro, he achieves a narrative sense in a first-person perspective. Dreamlike sci-fi color palettes, multidimensional transitions, fallen birds, jumping figures, running, and shooting details convey a sense of speed and the passage of time. These elements serve as personal metaphors, reflecting the fragmentation and alienation of human emotions in the digital age, prompting viewers to reconsider the limitations of linear time and singular spatial perspectives.

In 2025, Bluerider ART Taipei · DunRen presents the solo exhibition Pi Kai: Breaking The Fourth Wall, featuring a series of the artist's recent new works. “Crossing the River of Time, Memories Flood Over You” uses visual segmentation to depict multiple timelines and nonlinear narratives in video games, reflecting players’ emotional experiences triggered by rewinding, pausing, or fast-forwarding through time. “Jumping into the Depths of the Valley” portrays a figure leaping into an unknown abyss, as if falling into a labyrinthine dimensional space or unlocking deep-seated memories of the character’s backstory. “Romance Floats in the Air” and “A Girl Wants a Bouquet” use floral and plant imagery to transform abstract emotions in the virtual world into tangible and participatory experiences.

Pi Kai: Breaking The Fourth Wall is a cross-dimensional adventure by a new-generation artist exploring the boundaries of the virtual and the real. With bold compositions and a distinctive gaming aesthetic, Pi Kai invites viewers to enter his world, resonate with his narrative, and confront perceptions of time, space, memory, and self.