A waitress displays a plate of animal penises and testis at the Guolizhuang pen*s Restaurant on September 7, 2007 in Beijing, China. The restaurant offers more than 30 types of animal-pen*s dishes which can cost from 500 yuan (76.99 USD) up to 90,000 yuan (13,857.67 USD). It is believed that eating an animal's pen*s can strengthen a man's sexual ability. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

A Peugeot 408 car is displayed during the 2011 (15th) Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macao International Auto Show at Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center on June 2, 2011 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province of China. The 6-day Auto Show will be held from June 2 to 7 with total exhibition area of 110,000 square meters. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)

The Temple of Heaven (The Qi Nian Temple) is illuminated as Beijing celebrates the New Year's Eve at the Temple of Heaven Park on December 31, 2011 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Saturday, February 3, 2024, a Mi-28N “Night Hunter” helicopter gunship of the Russian air force fires rockets at a target at an unknown location in Ukraine. (Photo by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP Photo)

“The Red Beach is located in the Liaohe River Delta, about 30 kilometer southwest of Panjin City in China. The beach gets its name from its appearance, which is caused by a type of sea weed that flourishes in the saline-alkali soil...”. – Amusing Planet. Photo: Panjin Red Beach (盘锦红海滩). (Photo by 猪倌)

This photo taken on April 5, 2013 shows Buddhist monks passing a yak in Seda Monastery, the largest Tibetan Buddhist school in the world, with up to 40,000 monks and nuns in residence for some parts of the year. Seda, known to Tibetans as Serthar is located in Ganzi prefecture in the west of China's Sichuan province and has become a hotbed of protests and violence since the Tibetan uprisings of March 2008. (Photo by Peter Parks/AFP Photo)

“In honor of Friday’s World Press Freedom Day, the non-governmental organization Reporters sans frontières (Reporters Without Borders) launched a campaign depicting world-famous dictators giving everyone the finger, or the international equivalent thereof”. – Kay Steiger. (Photo by Vincent Bousserez/Reporters Without Borders)

Karl Bang's paintings are unique because he combines totally different styles of painting within the same format. It is very difficult to design a balanced composition with realistic elements that are juxtaposed with flat colors and patterns. The faces of his subjects are painted realistically in the Western tradition with subtle gradations of color; while, his figures and costumes vignette into abstracted shapes, lines, flat colors and patterns that reflect Karl's background in China. It is as though there are different visual languages being spoken within his paintings.