The still life is not so much about its traditional function as a celebration of material pleasures, such as food and wine, as it is about one’s knowledge of the characteristics of individual objects, which counts for as much as the actual impression perceived through the eye. Chen apparently does not rest content with the opportunity to experiment with the effect of light and shade, the contrasts and harmonies of colors and textures; neither does he take for granted any of the traditional motifs of the still life. In his vanita still life Still Lifes and Portrait, for instance, he heightens the gravity of the memento mori with the contrast between the female nude and the discreet skull, barely recognizable amidst a collection of succulent fruit. The result is a surrealistic, almost hyperrealistic pastiche characteristic of Chen’s creative vernacular, which borders a phantasmasgoria of fantasy and perversion.