The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 14, 2025

Pair of silk flats with loosely woven, white tops partially covering the inner soles which depict scenes of women with light skin tones in pastel colors. The right shoe features women hugging the grey trunks of leafy green trees. One hugs a tree facing another, back to us, reaching behind her to hug her tree. The left shoe features two women looking down, one leaning over the other's shoulder. Rocks sprout plants in the background.

Good Things Come in Pairs 8

2011

Peng Wei

(Chinese, b. 1974)
China
Silk: plain weave, painted with ink and colors
28 x 18 x 5 cm (11 x 7 1/16 x 1 15/16 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 2017.64
© Peng Wei
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Peng Wei is a contemporary artist with a studio in Beijing and gallery in Taipei.

Description

Peng Wei is a contemporary female artist whose work demonstrates a refined elegance and unique aesthetic. The soles of this pair of shoes, made of transparent silk, are painted with erotic scenes that refer to the past, showing female figures with bound feet. The ballerina-style shoes, however, reflect a modern and more liberal way of living.

The work’s title, Good Things Come in Pairs (haoshi chengshuang), is a Chinese proverb. It can also be read as an allusion to the Chinese philosophical principle that when the forces of yin and yang—or male and female—are in balance, harmony and order are achieved.
  • 2011-2017
    Collection of the artist, Beijing, China, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2017-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Yuan man de lü cheng: Peng Wei ge zhan [圓滿的旅程 : 彭薇個展 = Coming Full Circle: Peng Wei Solo Exhibition]. Taipei [臺北市]: National Museum of History, Taiwan [國立歷史博物館], [中華民國104年] 2015. Reproduced: p. 81
    Peng, Wei 彭薇, and Clarissa von Spee. Migrations of Memory: The Poetry and Power of Music by Chinese Artist Peng Wei in Collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art = 平沙落雁—音樂的詩意與力量: 中國藝術家彭薇與克利夫蘭藝術博物館合作. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2021. Reproduced: back cover
  • Spotlight on a New Generation: Contemporary Chinese Artists. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 6-November 1, 2020).
    The Splendor of Chinese Silk – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 5-August 12, 2018).
    Coming Full Circle: Peng Wei Solo Exhibition [圓滿的旅程: 彭薇個展 = Yuan man de lü cheng: Peng Wei ge zhan]. National Museum of History, Taiwan 國立歷史博物館, Taipei, Taiwan (August 7-September 20, 2015).
  • {{cite web|title=Good Things Come in Pairs 8|url=false|author=Peng Wei|year=2011|access-date=14 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2017.64