The Shanghai based artist Maleonn is known for his theatrical, melancholic and magical works that usually have a dark edge. The son of the director of a Beijing opera director and a well-known actress, Maleonn grew up in a world of stageing and enscening. It came as no surprise that he later on in life did not fulfill his romantic childhood dream of becoming a postman, but rather became an artist. Nor it came as a surprise that his theatrical upbringing inspired him in many of his works, whether recreating Chinese fables, literary works or the streets in Shanghai's French concession where he grew up in.
“[I am] coming back and forth between the most unreal world and the most real one, e.g. like bringing some amazing but fragile things in memories back to present; like taking some ordinary time of nowadays into certain atmosphere of the past or the future, seeking the beautiful balance lost in time”.