BEIJING—Wang Linshi, a thin, erudite 69-year-old from China's eastern city of Taizhou, has a soft spot for chickens.

He paints them. In his work, done in the traditional Chinese style, daubs of black ink dart and splay into astonishing renditions of tiny claws, or fade to gray to become wings, or come alive with expressions, and the humor he gifts them.

"Once,...