He Sen

born in 1968 in Kaiyuan (China)

In our catalogo since 2018

"He Sen's talent for creating a work is trained and matured, and his ability to give the viewer a fresh impression of life in contemporary China is astounding." Nicky Combs

For more than a decade he has created provocative and large-scale works that portray youth struggling in China’s fast-changing modern society. These blurred photorealistic images - women smoking in their homes, young people in seductive underwear and poses - explore how China’s youths were seduced by the growing influences of westernisation and globalisation, as well as the artist’s pessimistic outlook on this generation. More recently He Sen has turned to reinventing classical Chinese landscape paintings, replacing his figures with symbols as bamboo and pine.

08/11/108-07/01/2019 - Reinventing traditional Chinese art

Born 1968 in Kaiyuan, in Chinese Yunnan province, He Sen graduated from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts and currently lives and works in Beijing. He started to exhibit in the early 90s mostly in China. From 2003 on he started to exhibit in solo shows like “women’s Portraits” (2000) at Beijing’s Red Gate Gallery, “Out of the Red” (2003) at Milan’s Primo Marella Gallery, “Come Together” (2008) at the Tilton Gallery of New York and “Pure Views” (2013) at Japanese Fukuoka Museum.

Solo exhibitions (selected)

2018

Reinventing traditional Chinese art, Primae Noctis Art gallery, Lugano, CH 08/11/108-07/01/2019 - Reinventing traditional Chinese art

2017

Journey to the East, Longmen Art Projects, Shanghai, CN

2012

Conversing with the Moon, Today Art Museum, Pechino, CN

2010

Scene illusry, Marella Art Contemporary, Milano, IT

2009

Best Print Collection of He Sen, A Story Gallery, Busan, KR

Painting, Art Now Gallery, Pechino, CN

2008

Come Together, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, US

Do You Have Time Tonight, Galerie Frank Schlag & Cie, Essen, DE

2007

Now and Then, Art Now Gallery, Pechino, CN

2004

Shadow Shaped, Art Now Gallery, Pechino, CN

2003

Girl . Toy . Smoke, Red Gate Gallery, Pechino, CN

He Sen Solo Exhibition, Marella Art Contemporary, Milano, IT

2002

He Sen Solo Exhibition, Piltzer Gallery, Parigi, FR

2001

Scene, Eastlink Gallery, Shanghai, CN

2000

Women's Portraits, Red Gate Gallery, Pechino, CN

1992

Fist Exhibition, Chongqing, CN

Group exhibitions (selected)

2015

Secret Signs, Deichtorhallen, Amburgo, DE

2013

Pure Views,Fukuoka Museum, JP

2011

Expression of Chinese Contemporary Art, Today Art Museum, Pechino, CN

Pure Views, Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu, CN

2010

Cina. Rinascita Contemporanea – Palazzo Reale, Milano, IT

The Second Reality, Meridian International Center, Washington, US

The Outsiders, Marella Gallery, Milano, IT

Biennale di Venezia, Venezia, IT

2008

Rendez-Vous, Marella Gallery, Pechino, CN

Today’s China, Belvue Museum, Bruxelles, BE

2007

Made in China-Contemporary Chinese Art, Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen, DK

2006

Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, CN

2004

New Perspectives in Chinese Painting, Marella Arte Contemporanea, Milano, IT

2003

Out of the Red—China Art Now, Marella Arte Contemporanea, Milano, IT