Duan Jianyu

Duan Jianyu is a contemporary visual artist and writer from China, born in 1970 in Zhengzhou, Henan Province. She graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1995 and currently teaches at the Fine Arts Department of South China Normal University in Guangzhou.

Duan Jianyu's style is often described as surrealistic, drawing from a variety of art histories including European-American modernism, Chinese ink painting, and Chinese Socialist Realism. Her large-scale paintings feature everyday objects and people that slowly fade out and slip into the world of the mind, incorporating incongruous scenarios. With wry humor, her works explore the clashes between urban and rural, tradition and modernity in a society undergoing enormous changes during China's economic reforms and globalization.

Duan Jianyu’s recent selected solo exhibitions include Pond Society, Shanghai; 2019, Basel, 2019; Mirrored Gardens, Guangzhou, 2016; Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, 2013. She has participated in international exhibitions and bienniales, including: One Hand Clapping, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, U.S.A, 2018, and Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2015, among others.