Zhiyu You depicts the struggles women face in a diabolical series of Hell Scene paintings

Eyeless heads stuffed into pasta baskets. Body parts sizzling in a pan. Small skeletons happily cut through a woman’s torso. These are just some of the grotesque sights in Zhiyu’s Hell Scene illustrations, which reinterpret the eighteen layers of Hell and the struggles women face in a devilishly surreal way.

They are a prime example of the amazing artist’s presence in commerce: strange images that combine Chinese mythology, Western imagery and the social pressures women and minorities face. Other works in her portfolio realize these elements in different ways, such as a series of portraits where a woman’s mouth becomes a prison and the demands of modern life gather around her in a stack of window-like boxes.

And while her artwork realizes some of her darker inspirations, Zhiyu tells Creative Boom that she finds ideas from all areas of her past. “Chinese culture influenced me in different ways,” he explains. It’s in the food I eat, the books I read and the movies I watch.

“My series of Hell Scene paintings is inspired by the ancient Chinese book Hell Scene Painting, in which I combine depictions of hell in Buddhist scriptures with the connection of modern life and the ‘imprisonment’ of women in ancient culture. By doing this, I can highlight the plight and unfair treatment women have suffered throughout history.”

Using Chinese characters in her designs both as a nod to her past and as decoration, Zhiyu aims to create work that resembles a cross between illustration and comics. “My painting medium is basically digital,” he adds. “In the beginning, I often used a pen to draw line drawings on watercolor paper and used acrylic ink to color them. Since then, I’ve started using Procreate and Photoshop to complete everything.”

Hailing from the coastal city of Shenzhen, Zhiyu was exposed to the myriad cultural references that would inform her work from an early age. When he was growing up, Shenzhen was a fledgling and fast-growing area that experienced diversified development. And it is these foreign influences that, she says, influenced her future life choices.

“Even as a child, I was very interested in drawing and when I was in class, I enjoyed quietly drawing my own imaginary world in the textbooks,” he adds. “Although my parents’ profession had nothing to do with art, they supported me to paint a lot. They found me a good art teacher who taught me systematically. I’ve had many hobbies over the years, but the only constant is drawing. I am grateful to my parents for supporting my career.”

However, Zhiyu is well aware that her upbringing is unfortunately not typical in China, as many families still prefer to raise a son. “When I was still studying in China, many of the girls in my class had brothers at home,” she explains. “Mothers still have to give birth to a boy after giving birth to girls to improve their family status. In some areas, mothers who do not have sons are disrespected by the family.

“Fortunately, I was born into a family where my parents didn’t look down on me for being a girl. But many friends around me still struggle and are treated unfairly by society and their families because they are women. I hope that through work, I can help girls who are still treated unfairly”.

After studying at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts for a year, Zhiyu found that the exam-oriented education did not appeal to her. To change things up, she moved to the United States to study illustration at the School of Visual Arts, which further broadened her cultural and artistic horizons.

“After I graduated, I decided to stay in New York because there are a lot of illustration-related activities in the city every year,” he reveals. “I like participating in these events because I always make new friends. Having lived here for a long time, the subjects of my paintings have also been influenced because I like to record my observations and the trivial things in life.”

Inspired by classical Chinese painters and contemporary Western illustrators, as well as her teachers at SVA – namely Yuko Shimizu, Marcos Chin, Mu Pan and Sam Weber – Zhiyu believes she has been able to develop even more themes and directions in her work, all these while maintaining her characteristic style. However, bringing to the surface the unnoticed emotions of women remains a cornerstone of her art.

“I hope to draw more attention to women in society,” she concludes. “Everyone in modern society has different pressures, and not everyone can understand the pressures of different groups. I hope my work can create a ‘female vision’ and capture multi-dimensional information in an artistic way. I hope it will let more people understand the current situation and problems of modern women”.