RedNow, Me: Pu Yingwei

Born in China in 1989, Pu Yingwei studied at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (2013) and the École nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (2018). He lives and works in Beijing.

An active member of the new generation of Chinese conceptual art, Pu Yingwei combines and develops the visual and ideological heritage of socialist art, the early Chinese avant-garde and contemporary Western art to form a unique vocabulary with a common historical perspective. Since his time in France, he has focused more specifically on post-colonial themes. As the tools used to analyse Chinese art relied on a post-Marxist or post-structuralist interpretation, they had to be replaced by a new set of values and understandings. His artistic practice spans painting, writing, design conception, curating, performance and conferences. In his latest work, Pu Yingwei focuses even more on the history of global revolution and resistance, and further integrates a variety of local cultures to construct an inspiring and engaging working context of ‘New Internationalism’.

For several years now, Pu Yingwei has been developing a typography that has become representative of his work. Entitled “Typography of the Red Empire”, it combines the Cyrillic alphabet (memory of Soviet Russia and communism), Chinese ideograms (vernacular tradition) and Latin characters (Anglo-Saxon globalisation). Pu Yingwei deploys this triple typographic identity on paintings in which the color red is prominent as a symbol of national identity and as a personal stylistic signature.

He addresses the impact of these three politico-ideological principles on contemporary China through architecture, landmark events— such as the arrival of Coca-Cola on Chinese soil—, and China’s colonial relationship with Africa (“Chinafrica”), which he is particularly interested in.

Earlier this year, Pu Yingwei had already embarked on a multi-day marathon of oral exchanges and discussions with various thinkers and theorists in Paris, entitled “RED RENDEZ-VOUS: Dialogue on the Art of the Nation”. Following this Parisian encounter, the artist embarked on successive “journeys of inquiry and research” in the former Yugoslavia, Kenya, Vietnam and Kazakhstan, in an attempt to understand and establish a profound link between the “self” and the “red”. After the opening of the exhibition at KOMUNUMA, Pu Yingwei will travel to Ukraine.

For the first time in France and after several presentations in China, the “REDNOW, ME” exhibition introduces the artist’s series of paintings, which express the complexity of contemporary Chinese society and history. The exhibition’s title “REDNOW” is homophonous with the expression “RIGHT NOW”, recalling the color red, a symbol of today’s socialist China in the context of globalization.

“REDNOW, ME” recounts major historical and political narratives, both national and international, but from a first person point of view. It is first and foremost Pu Yingwei’s view of contemporary China, and his lived experience through historical research and extensive travel to countries historically or politically linked to his own. Pu Yingwei hopes

to integrate subjects such as the political and the personal, the local and the global, the present and the future into his perception, thought and visual language. His aim is to transcend the old ways of understanding Chinese art, and to establish a new narrative to describe art, history and society.

Pu Yingwei’s work has been presented in various institutions such as the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden in Germany, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, the Nouvel Institut Franco-Chinois in Lyon, the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, the He Art Museum in Shunde, the OCAT Museum in Shenwhen, Taikang Space in Beijing, aswell as at the 13th Biennial of Shanghai and the Caen Film Festival. Pu Yingwei won the John Moore Painting Prize, as well as the International Award for Art Criticism Prize for his article “Empire’s Legacy”. He is part of the Gen. T Asian Emerging Pioneers list, Forbes China Contemporary Younh Artists and of China Art Power 100. He has also wone the HuaYu Youth Award, the Jimei-Arles Discovery Reward and the Porsche Young Chinese Artist of the Year award. His work is included in major private and public collections such as the Kadist Collection, the Emerige Collection, the Start Museum, the He Art Museum, the Sifang Art Museum, the Guangdong Museum of Art, the X Museum, the Longlati Foundation, the ASE Foundation, the Art Pioneer Studio, the Song Art Museum, the Chaoqing Art Foundation, the CC Foundation and the Arario Museum.