HUANG RUI

BEIJING, China — From 25 September–19 December 2021, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art presents Huang Rui: Ways of Abstraction. Since the late 1970s, Huang Rui (b. 1952, Beijing, lives and works in Beijing) has been active at the forefront of Chinese contemporary art as an artist and instigator, who notably co-organised the Stars Art Exhibition in 1979 and pioneered contemporary art practice in China.

Huang Rui: Ways of Abstraction is the largest solo exhibition by the artist in recent years. Featuring more than 40 paintings and sculpture installations from the beginning of the artist’s career to the present day, this exhibition explores the language of abstraction and East Asian thoughts that have informed the artist’s practice for decades. Structured by five series—‘Early Abstraction,’ ‘Space,’ ‘Space Structure,’ ‘Experiments with Ink,’ and ‘Installation Works’—works on view include the latest paintings created in 2021 in the ‘Heaven, Earth, Man’ series, and exhibited for the first time, the oil paintings in the 2020 ‘Inside-out Dao’ series.

Huang Rui: Ways of Abstraction is curated by UCCA Director Philip Tinari with UCCA Assistant Curator Neil Zhang.

About the Artist

Huang Rui (b. 1952, Beijing, lives and works in Beijing) was a founding member of the groundbreaking Chinese avant-garde art group The Stars. In the 1980s, his practice centred on painting, and in the 1990s he began to explore more diverse and experimental art-making techniques, including installation, performance art, photography, and prints. His major solo exhibitions include Animal Time: 1204-2009 (Coudenberg Museum, Brussels, 2009); Chinese History in Animal Time (Museo delle Mura, Rome 2009); Huang Rui: The Stars’ Times 1977-1984 (He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, 2007); Chai-Na/China (Les Rencontres d’Arles Photography Festival, 2007); and Huang Rui Exhibition (Osaka Contemporary Art Center, 1990).

Select group exhibitions include Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2017); CHINA 8 (various venues, Germany, 2015); the Venice Biennale (2013); and the Stars Art Exhibition (east garden of the National Art Gallery, Beijing, 1979).