Yin Xin (B. 1959, China)Born in China's far-western province of Xinxiang, Yin Xin was only 7 years old when the Cultural Revolution in China began. The period of oppression and chaos that was to follow had a profound impact on the artist and he sought to take only qualifications from the social realism style he was driven into studying at Art College. Whilst painting endless still lives in class and watching his older peers graduate into propaganda graphic art and advertising, Yin Xin was strategising his way out into expressionism. Yin Xin continues to explore his passion for China and its people through 'Chinesifying' traditionally western images and techniques. He sees no reason why a Chinese man and his wife should not be depicted in 18th century European dress and in a patrician context. He paints versions of well-known old master paintings and peoples them with Chinese men and women. He thereby challenges our conception of the great icons of western art as sacrosanct and inviolable.Several successful exhibitions, based on his 'Opium' and After the Masters' series in Britain and Hong Kong have ensured critical acclaim. It is Yin Xin's collection "Ballerinas" that has people mesmerised by the quiet but theatrical compositions, both male and female ballerinas are depicted on stage in a quasi omniscient viewpoint. He now lives and works in Paris.