Gong Chenyu

Gong’s work has always been concerned with the creating and production of ‘idol’, whether human or divine, in different contexts of power. The work is not a re-imagining of the gods, but rather a metamorphosis from either text or other images, not in the sense of transformation through natural forms, instead more by recourse to painting itself. In Gong’s view, one needs to pursue a stirring that transcends nature. Thus his practice is like the “MacGuffin” in Hitchcock’s cinematography, which is not a real object or something unconnected to reality, yet it is the core of the action of the conversation or even the whole story. The ‘idol’ is not a substance that exists but a constructed ideology, a spiritual need, or an idea, at a particular stage of human consciousness. Therefore, Gong’s works do not find a counterpart in each of the sources of images and texts, on the contrary he seeks a dislocation of perception and a particular ambiguity of detail, like a fog that only hints at but does not penetrate into, a barrier created by the space of painting, while also a constant urge to turn the audience’s mind elsewhere.

1988 Born in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, China

2012 Graduated from Sculpture Department of China Academy of Art with Bachelor’s Degree

2015 Graduated from Oil Painting Department of China Academy of Art with Master’s Degree

Currently works and lives in Hangzhou

Solo Exhibitions

2018 Ice Chiseling: Gong Chenyu, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

2015 Hive-Becoming XV Gong Chenyu: Display, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

Group Exhibitions

2020 The Salvation of Shahrazad: Memo of the New Generation Painting, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

          Being of Evils, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

2019 Light Profoundness: The Worldlet of East Asian Artists, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

          Summer Fling, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Shenzhen, China

2017 Full of Tigers on the Roof, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Shenzhen, China

2016 A Ride to Combine: Hive’s Special Exhibition 2016, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

          Painting as Strait Gate: Post 80s Artists Invitation Exhibition, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

2015 Cross The Year: Expansion of the Contemporary, Renke Artistic Center, Hangzhou, China

          IVY Art, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

          2015 Luo Zhongli Scholarship Exhibition, Luo Zhongli Art Museum, Chongqing, China

          The Twelve Paintings, L-Art Gallery, Chengdu, China

2014 Imago. Invisible: Seven Emerging Artists Project, Community Art Space, Hangzhou, China

          Matching, Community Art Space, Hangzhou, China

          Three Emerging Artists Project, MAO Space, Shanghai, China

          The 12th National Exhibition of Fine Arts, Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, China

          The 13th Zhejiang Province Art Exhibition, Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, China

          Art Asia 2014, Long Museum, Shanghai, China

          Virtual Buzz, Zhejiang World Trade International Exhibition Center, Hangzhou, China

          Spring is Coming, Sanshang Art, Hangzhou, China

2013 The Morality of Painting: China Oil Painting Exhibition 2013, Dadu Museum of Art, Beijing, China

          Growing: Shanghai Youth Biennial 2013, China Art Museum, Shanghai, China

          Be Youth: Young Artist Exhibition, Hangzhou, China

          Virtual hush, Upto Art, Shanghai, China

          Jiannan Horizon: Zhejiang Province Oil Painting Exhibition, Ningbo Art Museum, Ningbo, China

2011 The 5th Zhejiang Province Youth Fine Art Exhibition, Taizhou Art Museum, Taizhou, China

          The 6th “Century Star” Oil Painting Exhibition, Museum of China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China

2010 The 5th “Century Star” Oil Painting Exhibition, Museum of China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China

          Cultivated Landscape: China Jiande International Public Sculpture Invitation Exhibition 2010, Jiande, China

2009 Boating on the Lake, Shenchang Art, Hangzhou, China

          The 12th Zhejiang Province Art Exhibition, Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, China

          The 4th “Century Star” Oil Painting Exhibition, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China

          Whitehorse Lake Art Festival, Whitehorse Lake Creative Eco-city, Hangzhou, China