A perfect clear sincerity. According to Yan Lei creating art is almost an innate ability. In his memories drawing is almost the whole of his non professional life. Since his childhood his walls were filled with cray drawings. In Primary 3rd he studied Chinese painting in the cultural center, then was sketching almost everyday in high school. He later wanted to work solely in fine arts, as first in his professional class,张扬 he chose to further his studies in Hebei Normal University’s Sculpture Major. He was prized with a gold award at the graduate exhibition at the end of his studies. Yan Lei is gifted and well trained artist. His life long career is one that is rich in content and pure in heart. Seven years after his graduation this young born in the 80s has received countless awards. Yan Lei had a very happy childhood, living with his grandfather a respected soldier, who fought in the North Korean War. Therefore Yan Lei lived in a secluded military complex, growing up. Having a privileged lifestyle Yan Lei lacked nothing. At the same time this gave Yan Lei a different perspective and memories on the Red Era. This gave him a sensitive side on critical commentary language forms. This type of understanding blended with his own character creates a way of expression that is more gentle and subtle yet bringing out his thoughts and struggle. In his well crafted details he purposely maintains a sense of conflict. For example in his early works the powerful bird claws and his recent works the red nose speaks of an artists passion. If we say that his childhood made him aware on the social changes and China’s unique social conditions as well as allowed him to reflect and create according to them. We can also say that localized tertiary education gave him the opportunity to pursue the contemporary and the beautiful and their evolution and changes. Before graduating he visited 798 art district in Beijing with several friends. This visit opened Yan Lei’s eyes to acquire a deeper understanding of contemporary art and reflect on what art really means. During that time of the rise of Chinese contemporary art scene, Yan Lei having a red background was immediately captivated. He grasped the essence of the relationship between his childhood memories and contemporary art. As the contemporary art scene kept growing so did Yan Lei’s interest and reflections on it grew. The firm technical base and skills he learned at the university and power in sculptures that he comes into contact with shapes his artistic philosophy. This makes his work very subtle and appear to be precise and detailed. Yan Lei’s hometown is in Han Dan, an old city. This city has accumulated deep historical and cultural value. From the Xiang Tang mountain kiln known throughout the world, to imperial tomb culture of ancient Ye city through to the North Dynasty, all bring out the splendor and beauty of the old city Han Dan. This type of aesthetic critic environment has a big influence on Yan Lei. He who learned traditional Chinese painting from a young age has absorbed the nutritious traditional aesthetic approach in the environment. In his simplistic and pure artworks we can see a deep connection with historical culture. Nevertheless as an artist born in the 80s into a fortunate family, the conflict between traditional aestheticism and contemporary sense becomes inevitably an issue that he has to face. In reality Han Dan is a very interesting city at least to the contemporary art scene. It gave birth to many influential artists. This gives Yan Lei a kind of confidence and pride. Facing reality, Yan Lei like many other artists who came to Beijing has seen lots of struggles but inspired by the older generation artists who lived in Yuan Ming Yuan and their stories he kept on going and regained his confidence and hope. Later Yan Lei found lots of friends and teachers that would help him a lot with his career and life in Beijing. Their passion for art and their ways of doings things admist difficulties directly impacted Yan Lei art view. He used two years to self refine, to refocus between the historical influence of his background and the outer influence of contemporary art that directly impact him. He claims to have come to maturity at too late a stage that he whence he should have been independent he still had a lot of questions in his mind confusing him. "Reality, the ideal, art, friendship, love, rationality, politics, human nature, morals, time, space, cars, today, tomorrow, dust, exhibition, appearance, concept, emotions, kids, youth, age, tears. etc." He reflects on his past works and realizes that care for humanistic culture is what creates his unique value and spirit. In his non stop quest starting with his clawed man series, flows out an eastern scenery painting style. The clearly scene bone structure and powerful muscle of the character seems to express Yan Lei growth in art’s inevitable struggle. And blank expression on the character’s face seem to reflect Yan Lei’s stability and fearlessness in facing a hard and rough path. And this fearlessness is becoming the subject of focus for Yan Lei. In terms of aestheticism he seeks calmness, the peaceful, the deep and thoughtful mode. In terms of the scenery he wishes to blend in traditional chinese culture into the artwork bringing quietness and thoughtfulness out. We should say series is the beginning of Yan Lei’s deep quest. In this series the characters have a full costume, from Zhongshan outfit to the old fashioned hunting gun linking Yan Lei’s childhood to the present, the traditional to the contemporary. The influence of his upbringing, the early traditional Chinese painting education and the experience of being awarded prizes for his works causes Yan Lei to bring out the richness of traditional culture in his works and under the impact of contemporary art, Yan Lei seems to have opened a door to a whole new world of balance between fullness and precision, humor and criticism, introverted personality and freedom. He is experiencing first hand the blending of contemporary spirit with eastern sensibility and is experimenting with it non stop. In this process Yan Lei has put all the questions into it and has a found a way to magnify their limitless possibilities. Under the influence of the western philosophies and ways of life, he has found a way to discern the good from the bad in a culture and to learn from its benefits and discard the shortcomings. He has also learned how to use his own national cultural influence, language and artistic ways to express his feelings. He cares about life and reads about the present, criticizes the evil and ugly, puts his hopes on the good and beautiful. Blending the common humanistic values and the traditional Chinese culture is Yan Lei’s art direction. According to Yan Lei from the beginning’s to the present’s outflow of his emotions., Yan Lei’s has been through so much hardship and perseverance. The privileged childhood and real life situation sometimes causes him to be lost. What encourages him is not only his passion and sincerity for art but also his friend Wan Xiao Li, a pop singer and his story. In his youth Yan Lei has seen Wan Xiao Li, a factory worker back then, and his determination in and passion for music. The big whole in the sofa that was due to too much seating while practicing piano and Wan’s long unformal hair that represented the image of freedom both caused Yan Lei to carry on. Wan having a same upbringing coming from the same hometown has given much encouragement to Yan Lei. Yan Lei likes music and especially country music. He hopes that his works will show a glimpse of passion for country music. Simple, pure feelings and a serious, strict attitude becomes in Yan Lei’s hands one after an other tangible work of art, expressing his own thoughts with symbolistic decorations. He knows that the path of an artist is a long and uneasy one, but standing in front of the freedom to create and the possibility of sincere expression makes all problems seem un noteworthy. This spirit that comes from hardship and perseverance has been translated by him into his works as a historical touch. The seemingly solitude of the characters has a warmth of sincerity and joy. It touches the deepest part of the audience. Sincerity is what Yan Lei always mentions in his conversations. In reality he wishes to face every situation with a sincere heart. And wants to express everything with a sincerely. In the creation process of Yan Lei suddenly had an inspiration to put a red clown nose to his characters. This covers the positive side of joyfulness and happiness and the negative side of bitterness and hardships. The artistic charm of Yan Lei comes to life from this. The different costumes of the characters causes each and every exhibited space to have a sense of theatrical drama. Yan Lei says he dislikes to create characters are sad and upset. Just like his characters he hides his emotions deep and what is seen on the surface is the sincerity and warmth of joy. In this series of artworks Yan Lei transmits a concept through the red clown nose. He says in his heart the red clown nose has too many stories and meanings. It represents sincerity, kindheartedness, and a radiance of light but on the other hand it represents cunningness, sadness and hypocrisy. The clown is an actor and us who live in this world are we not also? Actors seek for fame and fortune, step on each other, the desires of their heart are never satisfied. In the end they don’t have any happiness, freedom or love what is left is solitude, hypocrisy and pressure. Just like us who are glamorous on stage have to face a kind of solitude and sadness when we are behind the curtains. In one of Wan Xiao Li’s songs < > it expresses such a scene: carry on down this path, not far way there will be a crossing, you can go forward, or turn left or right but you can’t stay on the spot. This very much describes Yan Lei’s art career path: carry on, won’t stop here. Yan Lei says that he hopes this red nose shines bright forever, and always representing the warmth love and freedom. Perhaps this kind of life like in the lyrics: < >