Yu Honglei
Yu Honglei was born in Inner Mongolia in 1984, and he now lives and works in Beijing. Yu’s works often make references to contemporary art and music. These references grow spontaneously in the creative process—which can be considered a metaphor for the unplanned formation of the visual cultures in Chinese cities. To Yu, there can be no association between the name given to a thing and the thing itself, and that all names and things are multivalent, if not ambiguous. With his grasp of such multivalence, the visual form and title of his work are in an open relationship that allows for limitless possibilities of interpretation.
Yu’s most recent solo exhibition is New Directions: Yu Honglei at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2019). His works were featured in group exhibitions including the 57th October Salon, Belgrade (2018); I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream at Fondazione Baruchello, Rome (2017); Hybrid Layers at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2017); and More Than Lovers, More Than Friends at the Centre for Contemporary Art FUTURA, Prague (2016).