ABOUT
Han Mengyun (b. 1989 in Wuhan, raised in Shenzhen) is a visual artist, comparatist, multilingual writer and a mother. She is currently based in London.
Her practice addresses the decolonisation of the phenomena of Eurasian transcultural hybridisations that occurred across vast landscapes of time and space from the dominative mediation of the Western conceptual gaze. She was initially trained in the Western tradition of oil painting but diverted from the singular viewpoint of art production towards the com- plexity of historical ties in the profoundly intercultural context of the continent’s history and present. The broad focus of her research covers interdisciplinary manifestations of cultural dialogue and polyvocal aesthetic conversation — from religion, philosophy, and mythologies to trade, vernacular craftsmanship, and bookmaking. Recently, she has been working on Indian and Persian manuscript traditions and woodblock printing in China and Japan.
The subjects of intersectionality and the legacies of imperialism are another significant recurring trope in my practice. Weaving the personal and collective experiences of the female subaltern into an alternative space of solidarity, she engages with the struggle for visibility of the subaltern and for their equal access in shaping planetary cultural discourse. The ruptures caused by neoliberal globalisation, cultural hegemony, and geopolitical or religious conflicts are reflected through the multimedia character of her work, which ranges from painting, installation and architectural interventions to filmmaking and writing. As a transdisciplinary inquirer, she attempts to challenge the Aristotelian hierarchisation of knowledge categories and Eurocentric aesthetic criteria. In the emerging, post-Western domination era, her practice highlights the necessity to rethink the conceptual boundaries between what is known, to be learned and unknowable. By doing so she returns to and questions the potentiality of inter-faith, inter-racial and multi-lingual Pan-Asianism.
Han Mengyun received BA in Studio Art from Bard College and has pursued the study of Sanskrit at various institutions such as Kyoto University before she completed her MFA at the University of Oxford with a research focus on Classical Indology and Indian aesthetic theories.
HAN MENGYUN
b.1989 Wuhan, China
Currently based in London
EDUCATION
2018 M.F.A. (Distinction), University of Oxford, UK
2016 Research Student, Sanskrit and Classical Indian Aesthetics, Kyoto University, Japan
2012 B.A, Studio Art, Bard College, US
2019- Short Courses, Prince School of Traditional Arts, London, UK
Persian Painting, Mandala Painting, Byzantine Icon Painting, Ornamental Woodcarving, Woodworking: Build a Qur'an Stand, Ebru Technique, Weave a Persian Kilim Carpet, Natural Dyes & Patterns: Indian Block Printed Textile etc)
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND PROJECTS
2024 Night Sutra, Busan Biennale: Seeing in the Dark, Busan, South Korea (forthcoming)
2023 The Unending Rose, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai
2023 The Shape of Silence, "Painting Unsettled", UCCA Edge, Shanghai, China
2023 Serenade, ShanghART Gallery, Art Basel, HK
2023 The Pavilion of Three Mirrors, "SIGG: Chinese Contemporary art from the Sigg Collection", SONGEUN, Seoul, South Korea
2022 Night, IS A GALLERY, Shanghai
2022 The Glass Bead Game, ShanghART Gallery, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
2021 The Pavilion of Three Mirrors, Diriyah Biennale: Feeling the Stones, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2021 Logic of the Ether, Capsule Shanghai, West Bund Art & Design Fair, Shanghai, China
2021 Confession, "The Dwelling Place of the Other in Me", Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China
2019 Garden of Rasa, The Ertegun House, Oxford, UK
2019 Splinters of Jade, A Thousand Plateaus Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu, China
2013 In Between Islands, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2024 Lu Chuan, “Diaspora, Exile and Reborn: new narratives of London-based Chinese artists community”, The Art Journal, Issue 113, March 2024
2024 Jackie Lou Jia, “Complex Landscape: Thoughts on Practice from a New Generation of Female Artists in China”, Artnews China
2024 Lin Ye, “The Endless Fiction”, OUI ART
2023 Lai Fei, “Interview with Han Mengyun: Translation is ultimately the politics of love”, ArtReview China
2023 Misong Kim, "Han Mengyun: A Mind, Is a Mirror, Is a Rose", Ocula
2023 In the Name of Her, The Art Newspaper China, Issue 107
2023 Li Siyi, "Unsettled Painting and the Image beyond Painting", ART-BA-BA
2023 Suchao Li, "Han Mengyun: The Shape of Silence", BUOYANT ART
2023 Luan Shixuan, Curatorial Essay “Painting Unsettled”, UCCA Edge, Shanghai
2022 Boliang Shen, “Archiving the Art of An Era”, The Art Newspaper China, 100th Issue Special Edition
2022 Suchao Li, “Han Mengyun: Night”, Limited Views
2022 Yiren Shen, “Focus on the Makers of Art History in the Future”, Artnet
2022 Pamela Wong, “Everyday Poetry: Han Mengyun”, ArtAsiaPacific, Issue 128
2022 Cai Zhenyu, “Mirror as Mind”, The Thinker, Issue 73
2022 Paul Laster, “Crossing the River by ‘Feeling the Stones’ ”, ArtAsiaPacific
2022 Rahel Aima, “Stepping Stones: The Saudi scene takes the world stage”, Artforum
2021 Sam Gaskin, “Han Mengyun’s The Pavilion of Three Mirrors”, Ocula
2021 Luning Wang, “What's behind the cultural spectacle of Saudi Arabia: some thoughts on ‘cultural influence’”, Financial Times
2019 Sthaneshwar Timalsina, “Splinters of Jade: A Postscript”
2015 Rubén Pose, “Manchas Taoístas (Taoist Traces)”, Dangdai. Vol. 14
2014 Rubén Pose “The Influence of Daoist Aesthetics Traditions to Argentina”, Sino-USA Arts Journal
2013 Fu Chong. “The Ineffable”, World Art Magazine
2013 Jonathan Goodman, “Beijing: Mengyun Han at the Today Art Museum”, Art Critical
2013 Jonathan Goodman, “Elegía al vacío: Mengyun Han (Elegies for Emptiness)”, Frontera D
2013 Fu Chong, “Whence things have their origin: The meaning of abstract painting and In Between Islands”, catalogue In Between Islands, Today Art Museum
SELECTED WRITING AND PUBLICATIONS
2023 Han Mengyun on Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, ArtAsiaPacific, Issue 134
2023 When the Silent Soul Speaks, Chose Commune
2022 The Pavilion of Three Mirrors: Postscript, Limited Views
2022 Han Mengyun’s Bilingual Poem Collection: Night, published by IS A Gallery
2022 Suzan Frecon: Between Sun and Stone, Limited Views
2021 Yu Ji & Han Mengyun, New Museum Triennial: Soft Water Hard Stone, Phaidon
2021 Karlo Kacharava’s World of the World, LUNCHEON Magazine
2021 Conversation with Shun Kadohashi, Unearth001, Chose Commune
2021 Between Liminal Spaces: Interview with Edmund de Waal, The Thinker
2021 Sanya Kantarovsky’s Truth-Bearing Fantasy, Hyperallergic
2021 Painting as the Frame of Perception, Leap
2021 Echoes of Buddhist ‘Emptiness’ in Contemporary Chinese Art, Hyperallergic
2021 Photography as Mindfulness of Death: Deanna Dikeman’s Leaving and Waving, American Suburb X
2020 Painting the Eternity of Time: Tu Hongtao’s Twisting and Turning, Hyperallergic
TALK & PRESENTATION
2024 Artist Talk “Beyond the East-West Paradigm”, Work.Master programme(MFA), HEAD-Genève, Switzerland
2024 Artist Talk “In Lieu of Art History: postcritique strategies in art practice”, Workshop “Transmediating Traditions in China and Beyond”, Chinese Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK(forthcoming)
2023 Artist Talk "Beyond the East-West Paradigm", Centre for Chinese Visual Arts, Faculty of Arts, Design and Media, Institute of Creative Arts, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK
2023 Artist Talk "Wrongness as Method", UCCA Edge, Shanghai
2022 Artist Talk “Craft as Transcultural Practice”, ESEA Contemporary, Manchester, UK
2022 Workshop: Committing an Ornamental Crime, ESEA Contemporary, Manchester, UK
2022 Artist Talk, Open Practice Committee, Department of Visual Arts, University of Chicago, US
2022 Conversation with Dorota Gawęda+Eglė Kulbokaitė, Power Station of Art, Shanghai
2021 Spirituality in Art Practice: Han Mengyun in conversation with Lulwah Al Homoud, Diriyah Biennale: Feeling the Stones, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2021 Silent Thunder: The Intersection between Buddhism and Contemporary Art, UCCA, Beijing
2020 Confession, Muge Gallery, Chengdu, China
2019 Confession, “Activating Our Archives”, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK
TEACHING & VISITING
2024 Work.Master programme(MFA), HEAD-Genève, Switzerland
2023 Centre for Chinese Visual Arts, Faculty of Arts, Design and Media, Institute of Creative Arts, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK
2022 School of Visual Arts, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA
2012 Mason Gross School of the Art, Rutgers University, NJ, USA
RESIDENCY & AWARD
2024 K11 Art Foundation Artist Prize, Shortlist, Hong Kong
2023 Artist Residency at ESEA Contemporary (formerly CFCCA), Manchester, UK
2018 The Emery Award, Shortlist, Oxford, UK
2017 Oxford University Levett Scholarship, Oxford, UK
2012 Mason Gross School of the Arts Teaching Assistant Fellowship, NJ, US
2011 Christina R. Tarsell Studio Arts Award, NY, US
2000 Jane Fromm Yacenda Scholarship in the Arts, NY, US
2008 Helen Walter Bernstein ‘48 Scholarship, NY, US