Ren HUI set out to find his path on bicycle across China in the mid 80’s. Through this bicycle “tour” he found it.

Inspired by what he saw, experienced, and whom he came across, he truly began to sense art is where his passion lied. He picked up paper and scissors and began making paper cuts, a traditional Chinese art form. However, Ren HUI's paper cuts were anything but traditional. They were figurative and expressive ones that conveyed subjects in states of happiness – dancing, enjoying an apple or admiring the opposite sex. For him, he had found a new medium for his creative energies.

It was from everyday life, feelings and observations that he found his inspiration. This inspiration continued to a new medium in wood cuts. Ren HUI says he “continued to explore my creativity and wood seemed a natural progression.” These works began as an extension of his earlier themes of exaggeration and gradually came to represent every day life in a less dramatic form.

Through his oil paintings his works have taken on a bigger stage with more players, actors and stand-ins. He continues to portray everyday life. Sometimes in the here and now and sometimes in the past. Says Ren HUI, “My work reflects life. We have family, friends, ourselves, history, culture, trees, flowers, buildings, demolition – all which are reflected in my work. This is our life.”

Not interested to coin a specific genre or a subject matter, Ren HUI continues to explore life in his art. His art is not met to be a guessing game to connect the dots but a way to express the obvious with a hint of obscurity as is the life that we live. What is around us affects our lives today, yesterday, and tomorrow. As Ren HUI says, “It’s my life. It’s me!”