Chen Yujun is graduated from the multimedia department of the Academy of Arts of China, where he taught until 2014. Since 2003 he has been exhibiting his work all around the world (Beijing, Shanghai, Venice, New York). Most notably, in 2013, he participated in the second edition of the very controversial «Fuck Off» exhibition at the Groninger Museum (The Netherlands), which was co-curated by Ai Weiwei.
Originally coming from a coastal province of China, Chen Yujun draws his creative force from his particular experience of a nomadic deterritorialized identity, a product of the many important Chinese migration waves towards Southeast Asia that have taken place ever since the end of the Empire. The notions of family, identity and space are at the very core of the plastic work of this artist, who regularly collaborates with his brother on intimate works, seeking to find in matter a material projection of a mobile “homeland” with secret and symbolic dimensions.
The notion of space, combined with that of boundary – between the inner and the outer, between fantasy and reality, between private and public space – constitute the object of the polymorphous quest to either define or obliterate the contours of an identity that is the result of exile and fantasy. In his attempt to reproduce an internal order in each of his works, using various mediums such as collage, oil painting and installations, Yujun brings together the fragments of a nostalgic and alienating universe, set in permanent tension with an environment that is experienced as instable and transitory.
B.A. China Academy of Art, Hangzhou (CN)
M.F.A China Academy of Art, Hangzhou (CN)
DSL Collection (FR)
M+ Museum (HK)
White Rabbit Collection (AU)
Yuz Museum (CN)
He Xiang Ning Art Museum (CN)
China Long Museum (CN)
The river never remembers, The house cannot forget, Bank, Shanghai (CN)
Another Place, Space@all, Los Angeles (USA)
The Second Door, James Cohan Gallery, Shanghai (CN)
The city That Flies, Art Space, Shanghai (CN)
Transitional Room, Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing (CN)
The Empty Room – Chen Yujun Solo Exhibition, Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing (CN)
Serious Works, Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo (JP)
After Us, chi K11 Art Museum Shanghai (CN)
.COM/.CN, chi K11 Foundation Pop-up Space, Hong-Kong (CN)
The Exhibition of Annual of Contemporary Art of China 2015, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing (CN)
The Decameron—BMCA Documenting Art, Wenyu River, Beijing (CN)
Anonymous, Ginkgo Art Center, Beijing (CN)
The Moments of Cynicism and Piety: Collection Exhibition of Frank F. Yang Art & Education Foundation II, You Space, Shenzhen, China; Extra Space, Shenzhen (CN)
Over the wall, Tang Contemporary Art, Hong-Kong (CN)
White – Chen Yufan & Chen Yujun, Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong (CN)
Dissensus, Agitation – The language to painting, cur. by Dai Zhuoqun, Today Art Museum, Beijing (CN)
The Collection, Irène Laub Gallery (FEIZI), Brussels (BE)
Chen Yujun + Raphael Denis, Dynamic of Sources, Irène Laub Gallery (FEIZI), Brussels (BE)
BABEL ME, Shanghai Museum of Glass, Shanghai (CN)
Chen Yufan + Chen Yujun, Magnolia River Unsettled, Irène Laub Gallery (FEIZI), Brussels (BE)
The World III in the third world, The Art Center of Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok (TH)
Criss-Cross Artworks of Young Chinese Contemporary Artists From Long Collection Long Museum, Shanghai (CN)
Accumulation, Zhong Gallery, Beijing (CN)
The Light – Haff Invited exhibition, Inna Contemporary Art Two Space, Hangzhou (CN)
Seven Sunsets, Waiting dawnsm All in one, How to kill a wondrous time… not waiting a thousand hours, Shanghai gallery of Art, Shanghai (CN)
Garden – 4th anniversary invitation exhibition of ICAS, inna Contemporary Art two space Hangzhou (CN)
Merging Distances in light, L-Art Gallery, Chengdu (CN)
Dawn – New Art From China, Zhong Gallery, Berlin (DE)
Mulan River project – Chen Yujun and Chen Yufan works exhibition, Boers-Li Gallery Beijing (CN)
“Visual Flux” Easel Painting Research Exhibition 1—Space And Energy, Qinghe Current Art Center, Nanjing (CN)
Invisible Wings, Times Art Museum, Beijing (CN)
What is narrative, A4Gallery, Chengdu (CN)
Youth Upstairs-Young Critics Nomination Exhibition, Times Art Museum, Beijing (CN)
Home-Stay, Osage Gallery, Shanghai (CN)
Reshaping History-China Art From 2000 to 2009, Arario Gallery, Beijing (CN)
A Close-Up Focus on Chinese Contemporary Art Trends, Platform China, Beijing (CN)
Change, Hangzhou Wan Yuen Silk shop, Hangzhou Free Terminology, A4 Gallery, Chengdu (CN)
Points Crosses-Exhibition of Contemporary Painting in China, 2010 Art Center, Shanghai (CN)
Future Manufacturing, Qinghe Current Art Center, Nanjing (CN)
Going By, SZ Art Center, Beijing Blackboard, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai (CN)
Blade-Reconstruct Leifeng Pagoda, SZ Art Center, Beijing (CN)
Reflective, Wall Art Museum, Beijing (CN)
Xi Hu Art Museum, Hangzhou Look Deeper, Platform China, Beijing (CN)
Evolution, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai (CN)
FROM Hang Zhou, FELLINI Gallery, Shanghai (CN)
Points Crosses-Exhibition of Contemporary Painting in China, 2010 Art Center, Shanghai (CN)
Future Manufacturing, Qinghe Current Art Center, Nanjing (CN)
Going By, SZ Art Center, Beijing Blackboard, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai (CN)
Blade-Reconstruct Leifeng Pagoda, SZ Art Center, Beijing (CN)
Reflective, Wall Art Museum, Beijing (CN)
Xi Hu Art Museum, Hangzhou Look Deeper, Platform China, Beijing (CN)
Evolution, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai (CN)
FROM Hang Zhou, FELLINI Gallery, Shanghai (CN)
To Be A Qualified Successor, YIBO Gallery, Shanghai (CN)
Future Sky-Chinese Young Contemporary Artist Works Selection Exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing (CN)
Another Way-Experimental Art Exhibition of Hangzhou, the Quartet Art Museum, Nanjing (CN)
Seven Stones-Contemporary Artist Exhibition, Hangzhou Art Fair, Hangzhou (CN)
Aquilaria-Contemporary Artist Exhibition, Eye Level, Shanghai (CN)
Grain Cereals-Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition, China Academy of Art Museum, Hangzhou (CN)
Chongqing’s Position-Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition, Chongqing Three Gorges Museum (CN)
Chongqing Leap Month-Chinese Contemporary Artist Works Selection Exhibition, Yuandian Gallery, Shanghai (CN)
Academy Co- Exhibition China Academy of Fine Arts, Xiwu Gallery, Beijing (CN)
Forms and Colors—Zhejiang Young Oil Painters Invitation Exhibition, Zhejiang Provincial Museum (CN)
Hangzhou CAF Contemporary Art Exhibition (JP)
Migrants Home-Contemporary Art Exhibition, China Academy of Art Museum, Hangzhou (CN)
Young Mind-China New Sharp Painting Award, He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen (CN)
NO. 17 New Artists Exhibition, Yanhuang Art Museum, Beijing (CN)
Mixed Painting Documentary Exhibition, Central Academy of Fine Art Museum, Beijing (CN)
Art Basel Hong-Kong (CN)
West Bund Art & Design, Shanghai (CN)
Art Basel Hong-Kong (CN)
Art Central, Honk-Kong (CN)
Art0210, Shanghai (CN)
FUCK OFF II, cur. by Ai Wei Wei, Feng Boyi, Cui Cancan, Mark Wilson, Groninger Museum (NL)
Award Bronze Prize, Shanghai Young Artists Exhibition, Shanghai (CN)
Emotional consumption era – Chen Yujun and Chen Yufan, 9 Sqm Museum, Shanghai (CN)
Spacegraphy No. 1 – Exhibition of Chen Yufan and Chen Yujun, Aye Gallery, Beijing (CN)
Mulan River-Unsettled, Zhong Gallery, Berlin (GR)
Mulan River Project – Chen Yujun and Chen Yufan, Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing (CN)