Yuan yuan

Introduction to Yuan yuan

 

Yuan Yuan is currently based in Beijing, where she lives and works. She graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, receiving both her BFA and MFA degrees, and is recognized as a highly distinctive figure in contemporary art.

 

Her exhibition history spans internationally. In addition to solo exhibitions in Beijing and Shanghai, she has participated in residency programs in Singapore and Berlin (Die Brücke). Her group exhibitions have reached cities such as London, Stockholm, and Cologne, and her work has been presented at major institutions including the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai (MoCA Shanghai), steadily gaining scholarly attention within the contemporary art field.

 

With flowers as the central motif of her practice, Yuan Yuan has, over more than a decade of refinement and development, constructed a highly personalized visual language. Her works merge surreal imagery with a nuanced feminine sensibility, employing rich, layered color structures to create a cinematic sense of visual tension. Beginning from the organic logic of plant growth, she transforms close observation of nature into an extension of inner perception, allowing floral imagery to serve as a vessel that connects personal experience with the external world, and points toward reflections on the essence of life and states of being within urban contexts.

 

In terms of materials, Yuan Yuan demonstrates an open and continuously evolving practice, working across oil on canvas, mixed media, and extending into cross-media formats such as oil on steel. The consolidation of her floral vocabulary, through the interweaving of diverse visual languages, further advances her exploration and articulation of the symbiotic relationship between nature and life.

1984 Born in Beijing, China

 

Education
2015 M.A., Department of Oil Painting, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China.
2008 B.A., Department of Oil Painting, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China.

 

Solo Exhibitions

2024 Someone Was Just Here, N3 Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2023 Atum’s Gardener Tapping on Your Window, BAIwork x Tabula Rasa Gallery, Shanghai, China
2023 Art SG, dual solo booth, Tabula Rasa Gallery, Singapore
2021 La Possibilité d’une Fleur, Tabula Rasa Gallery, Beijing, China
2019 Glasswort, Tabula Rasa Gallery, Beijing, China
2015 Half-way into the Garden, Tabula Rasa Gallery, Beijing, China
2014 Die Brücke, Berlin, Germany
2011Yuan Yuan: New Works, Beijing Commune, Beijing, China
2010 Yuan Yuan: A World of Yesterday and Tomorrow, Chambers Fine Art, Beijing, China (travelled to Chambers Fine Art New York location) Curated by Yu Hong – Pan Li & Yuan Yuan: True False Objects, UCCA, Beijing, China

 

Group exhibitions

2019 “Utopia / Dystopia,” Dietz, Cologne, Germany
2018 “XIE – SHENG,” Bonacon Gallery, Guangzhou, China
2016 “Aurora,” Soka Art Beijing, Beijing, China
2015 “Shan Shui Within,” Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA Shanghai), Shanghai, China
2015 “International Artists Christmas Exhibition 2015 / 2016 – Global Impression,” Lion Palais Koenigsallee, Berlin, Germany
2014 “Fang Zhi Suo,” Lempertz Auction House, Berlin, Germany
2013 “China 8,” Osthaus Museum Hagen, Hagen, Germany
2012 “Graduate Exhibition,” Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum, Beijing, China
2010 “New Identity,” VDA, Berlin, Germany
2010 “Being is Not Being,” UCCASTORE (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art), Beijing, China
2009 “@What – New Contemporary Art from China,” ARKO Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2009 “4 Blind Spots,” Gallery Yang, Beijing, China
2008 “Becoming Peninsula I: Symptoms,” Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2008 “Beijing Voice: Together or Isolated,” Pace Gallery, Beijing, China
2010 “The mARkeT / I’m … 2010,” Beijing Center for the Arts, Beijing, China
2009 “The mARkeT / Summer 2009,” Beijing Center for the Arts, Beijing, China
2008 “Spectacle to Each,” Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA Taipei), Taipei, Taiwan
2008 “CO 2008,” Chambers Fine Art, Beijing, China (travelled to New York location)
2008 “The First Exhibition,” Li Space, Beijing, China

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