survey_01 — born in 81: eight Chinese artists of 1981

1. Li Qing [Li Qing] — 李青 (b. 1981, Huzhou (Zhejiang))

Graduate: China Academy of Art, 2007

Painting, installation, the “furniture” series. He works with how the Chinese interior preserves the memory of private life: cabinets, windows, old magazines as frames for painting.

• Series“Mutual Dissolution and Unity: Mountain and Hill”— painting on sliding panels and furniture, where the landscape assembles and falls apart as the panels move.
• “Pinball” (2019) and “Dark Magazines” — found covers and printed graphics as an archive of 1980s–90s taste.
• Solo projects: Prada Rong Zhai (Shanghai), Arario Museum (Seoul), “Mechanical Sublime” (INKstudio, Hong Kong, 2025) — a body of work on the “ruins” of literary tradition.
• Represented by Tang Contemporary (Beijing/Hong Kong), Almine Rech, Arario. A graduate of the China Academy of Art (Hangzhou); since 2012 he has taught in its oil painting faculty.

Sources: [1] · [2] · [3]

website

2. Li Shurui — 李姝睿 (b. 1981, Chongqing)

Graduate: Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (油画系), 2004

Painting and light installations. For her, light is not an image but a material: “patches” of paint unfold as the optics of which the city at night is made.

• The “Light” / Light No. N series (from 2005) — “flash” canvases shown as an environment in their own right rather than as a painting on a wall.
• The works “Polar Lights” (Polar Lights No. 10), “Summer Gone”, “20091231” — a continuation of the “Light” series: light as the material of the canvas rather than as an image.
• Installations: “That Which Comes from Nothing” and “Night Tide” (White Space, Beijing) — light as the architecture of the hall.
• Graduate of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (2004); Asian Cultural Council (ACC) fellowship for a residency in New York (2016); represented by White Space (Beijing) and Mangrove (Shenzhen).

Sources: [1] · [2] · [3]

3. Zhao Yao — 赵要 (b. 1981, Luxian (Sichuan))

Graduate: Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, 2004

Conceptualism: painting, woven banners, “thought” graphics. He tests what remains of a painting if the image is removed and only the gesture of thought is left.

• The “A Painting of Thought” (I–III) series — grids and “fragments” of reasoning in which the image gives way to the gesture of thought.
• “Spirit Above All” (Pace London, 2013) — seven paintings on denim and a photographic panorama of Tibet as the “lining” of the statement.
• “The Power of Nature: A Ten-Thousand-Square-Metre Painting” (UCCA, Beijing, 2018) — a canvas stretched across the Gongrentiyuchang stadium, the artist's largest project.
• Graduate of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (2004); five solo exhibitions at Beijing Commune (2011–2022); represented by Ota Fine Arts (Tokyo/Singapore) and Beijing Commune.

Sources: [1] · [2] · [3]

4. Cheng Ran — 程然 (b. 1981, Chifeng (Inner Mongolia))

Graduate: China Academy of Art, 2004

Video, cinema, video installation. The only one of his generation working at the long distance of film — with editing, music and a literary screenplay.

• “Diary of a Madman” (2016) — a 75-minute film shown at the New Museum (New York) as a solo exhibition.
• “Joss” (with Item Idem, 2019) and the two-part “Ghost of Tundra” — films in which editing, music and voice-over assemble the narrative.
• “In Course of the Miraculous” (2015–2016) — a three-part epic about people vanishing in the sea, the desert and the snows.
• Graduate of the China Academy of Art (Hangzhou, 2004); worked for five years as an assistant to the video artist Yang Fudong; works in the M+ collection (Hong Kong); Rijksakademie residency (Amsterdam); represented by Blindspot Gallery (Hong Kong).

Sources: [1] · [2] · [3]

5. Li Wei — 黎薇 (b. 1981, Beijing)

Graduate: Central Academy of Fine Arts of China, 2007

Sculpture and installation. She sculpts the human being “from within”: the body as a shell from which the content has departed; hyperrealism in the service of anxiety.

• The early “Hollow People” (空心人) series — half-figures with frightened eyes: the artist's first recognisable image.
• “No One Cares” (没有人在乎, Red Brick Art Museum, 2015) — a solo exhibition in which the hall is turned into a laboratory for observing the viewer.
• The projects “Heroes”, “Confessional”, “Thank God” — an engagement with the figure of power and with public shame.
• Graduate of the sculpture faculty of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA, 2007); participant in the Manchester Triennial (2014) and in the Rietberg Museum (Zurich); represented by Eli Klein Gallery (New York).

Sources: [1] · [2] · [3]

6. Yang Xun — 杨勋 (b. 1981, Chongqing)

Graduate: Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, 2005

Painting. Garden, stage and light as three constant motifs; the tradition of Song painting is translated by him into the optics of the stage.

• “Peony Pavilion No. 2” — a scene from a classical drama, painted as night light in a garden.
• The series “Ripples: Lotus No. 3” and “Departure of Spring: Plum No. 2” — landscape on the border of abstraction.
• A series of solo exhibitions since 2008 (“Then, Now, Light”); graduate of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (2005).
• Represented by Soka Art (Taipei/Beijing/Tainan); regarded as one of the most consistent figures of the “soft” painting of the 1981 generation.

Sources: [1] · [2] · [3]

7. Evelyn Taocheng Wang — 王陶程 (b. 1981, Chengdu; lives in Rotterdam)

Painting, text, costume, performance. Autobiography as method: observation, mistranslation and transformation — the three stages of her work.

• Wolfgang Hahn Prize 2025 — one of the major European museum awards, presented by the Society of Friends of the Ludwig Museum (Cologne).
• Solo exhibitions: Stedelijk (Amsterdam), Goldsmiths CCA (London), Frankfurter Kunstverein — painting together with personal texts and items of clothing.
• The book-catalogue “An Equivocal Contrast” and a cycle of works on “mispronunciation” — language as material on a par with paint.
• She studied painting at Nanjing Normal University; represented by Antenna Space (Shanghai) and Carlos/Ishikawa (London).

Sources: [1] · [2] · [3]

8. Zhang Tingqun — 张庭群 (b. 1981, Fuzhou (Fujian))

Graduate: Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, 2002

Linear abstraction. For him the line is a unit of time: the canvas grows line by line until it turns into a field for meditation.

• Series of fine lines on large canvases (up to 148×198 cm) — “the music of geometry”: the hand as a metronome.
• Works in the White Rabbit Collection (Sydney) and in Artsy online catalogues.
• Since 2022 he has worked in the USA (Florida) — a rare case for a Chinese artist of the 1981 generation.
• Graduate of the oil painting department of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (2002).

Sources: [1] · [2] · [3]