Cheng’s oeuvre mostly consists of video and film, as well as photography and installation works. His video works are praised for its eclectic form in which films are integrated into the poetic culture of contemporary age. His works convey a young perspective on the unsolvable issues in life, such as problems regarding identity, and life and death, and the anguish felt by young Chinese people living through the globalized Chinese culture and cultural policy. They integrate elements of the performative, the visual from electronica and rock’n’roll music, and in a few cases, the aesthetics of Chinese ink painting into his cinematic language that is informed by late 20th century cinema.
Read MoreCheng Ran graduated from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou and he continues to live and work in Hangzhou. Cheng has exhibited at many galleries and institutions in China and abroad, such as Moving Image in China: 1988-2011 (Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, 2011), Farewell to Post-colonialism: The Third Guangzhou Triennial (Guangdong Art Museum, 2008), Immersion and Distance (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2009), Yi Pai–Century Thinking (Today Art Museum, Beijing, 2009), The Tell-tale Heart (James Cohan Gallery Shanghai and New York, 2010 and 2011), In A Perfect World…(Meulensteen Gallery, New York, 2011), and Boy: A Contemporary Portrait (Leo Xu Projects, Shanghai, 2012). Cheng Ran has recently been awarded Best Video Artist of 2011 by the online art journal Randian.
