Yan Wei
Artist Statement
Yanwei is a Chinese contemporary artist working primarily in painting and drawing. Her work explores the female body as a site of tension, where cultural constructs, personal memory, and emotional experience collide.
Her images often present a controlled, almost classical surface, beneath which instability and discomfort persist. Drawing from mass media, mythology, and lived experience, she builds fragmented narratives that resist resolution, exposing the contradictions embedded in identity and perception.
Rather than offering clarity, her work lingers in ambiguity—where emotion is shaped, suppressed, and quietly resists.
CV
Residency
2026
Special Project 14C, Jersey City
Awards & Grants
2026
Fellowship, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Individual Artist Fellowship, New Jersey, USA
2023
NJ Arts and Culture Renewal Fund
Shows & Exhibitions
Solo:
2018 Vanity, Hi Art Center, Beijing
2015 4 above Frozen, Hi Art Center, Beijing
2011 Myth, Zan 8 Art Center, Beijing
Group:
2025 Joy, Paul Robersons Gallery, Newark, US
2014 Hi 21, Hi Art Center, Beijing
2013 On the Paper, Hi Art Store, Beijing
2012 portraits, Hi Art Store, Beijing
2011 unknown, J Gallery, Shanghai
2010 3rd Lvxiao Exhibition, Tokyo BTAP, Beijing
2010 Get It Louder, shanghai, Beijing
2009 Infantilization, Antwerp photo gallery, Belgium
2008 The Death of Color, Gallery 1949, Beijing
2008 Whaleless, Strychnin Gallery, London
2008 Growth, Record Suoluo Gallery, Beijing
2008 Salon, Red box Studio, Beijing
2007 Ha Mie Gu Ha, Suoluo Gallery, Beijing
2007 Infantilization, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai
2007 The Muscle of Galaxy, NYARTS Gallery, Beijing
