Xu Zhen’s Under Heaven paintings utilize a pastry chef’s icing applicator to apply oil pigment in thick, ornamental impasto to aluminum-backed canvas. The title of this group of paintings is both a literal translation of a Chinese word meaning “the whole world”—evoking a universe or aerial view in the dense composition—and a glib reference to Jeff Koons’ infamously self- indulgent Made In Heaven series. The Under Heaven series is both a seductive confection and a serious contribution to the ongoing narrative of abstract painting; it readily functions as both, with the artist clearly realizing his ambition to "have one’s cake and eat it too."