Cai Jin

Cai Jin was born in Anhui Province in 1965 where she graduated from the Anhui Normal University. After teaching for several years, she joined the Advanced Oil Painting Program at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. She began her "Banana" ("meirenjiao, meiren" meaning "beautiful woman") series in 1991, and the story of her epiphany upon confronting this group of plants is well known. In the winter of 1990, while walking through a garden in her hometown, she came across a cluster of Beauty Banana plants. The drying and tearing leaves were past their prime, and their pathos and beauty have been a continual inspiration for Cai Jin's colorful oil paintings ever since. She has been widely exhibited in recent international shows and has now returned to Beijing after several years in New York.