"Skydiver No. 1" (2011) is one of the most visually and thematically exciting of the iconic "bird's eye view", figurative oil paintings by renowned young Chinese Contemporary artist Zhou Jinhua. This large-scale painting is a stunning example of the iconic paintings that define Zhou's oeuvre, that all share the artist's unique play with perspective, scale, color and a surreal narrative. In "Skydiver No 1" a group of individuals is painted at a small scale, viewed from the perspective of a sky-diver with arms and legs splayed out, as if he just jumped from a plane and into the picture plane. Through parting white and blue clouds, the rose-colored ground comes into view, along with the bright and detailed group of figures that walk about. The perspective and the ever decreasing distance between the sky-diver and the individuals creates excitement and heightens emotional tension, as one is torn between waiting for the sky-diver to pull his parachute and the desire to view the figures on the ground, trying to ascertain their context.

Zhou is most famous for this 'birds eye view' perspective that intentionally makes his paintings feel like an aerial photograph. Zhou's unique 'remote' perspective and compositional manner immediately distances one emotionally from Zhou's intense and often riotous scenes and also heightens the sense of voyeurism. As a young child the artist began climbing to bridges and high rooftops to take photographs with his first camera and is also admittedly influenced by the “equal-angle see-through” (dengjiao toushi) perspective of traditional Chinese scroll painters. This work is one of his finest to date and is in excellent condition.

The artist was born in Sichuan, China in 1978. In 2002 The artist received his painting degree from the elite Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts. The artist has had solo and group exhibitions in China, Taiwan, Germany, and his paintings have been exhibited in Museum shows throughout Europe and Asia, including his 2010 solo exhibition:"Zhou Jinhua", at Neuffer am Park Art Museum, Pirmasens, Germany, in 2009 a solo exhibition, "We Are All Fine, but.....", Kunstverein Konstanz Museum, Konstanz , Germany and the group exhibition in 2007: "Encountering Paintings·Works of 10 Artists", China Art Museum, Beijing, China amongst others. The artist presently lives and works in Beijing China.