Mask Series. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Zeng Fanzhi, 52, is often referred to as one of China's most expensive living artists. His several paintings fetched mind-blogging prices at art auctions.

He made news headlines after an oil painting which he collaborated with Jack Ma, or Ma Yun, the Chinese online-based business magnate, sold 42 million yuan ($6.3 million) in a Hong Kong sale last year. It aroused controversies over whether a celebrity amateur painter’s work deserved a surprising price.

Zeng's rise to a star artist is reflective of a boost of Chinese contemporary art over the past three decades, as well as a booming art market although also creating a lot of bubbles and marketing hypes.

Zeng's current exhibition at the Ullens Contemporary Center of Art — so far the most comprehensive and largest in scale of his — hopes to draw people's attention back to his identity as an artist who has been seeking breakthroughs since the late 1980s.