ABOUT
Han Mengyun's practice is divided between the "day" and "night" metaphorically.
During the "day", she is a painter who diverts from the Eurocentric framework of painting, both classical and contemporary, developing towards the complexity of historical ties in the profoundly intercultural context of the Eurasian continent's past and present. The study of Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic, as well as Indian and Islamic art and intellectual histories, have led her to forge an alternative paradigm for image-making based on Indian and Islamicate miniature painting in manuscripts that were inspired, informed and proliferated by the invention of paper and printing techniques in ancient China. The book to her is an open space that connects all cultures while maintaining the uniqueness of cultural perceptions. Her paintings are conceived as pages and books, paying tribute to the history of ancient globalization such as the Silk Road and the intercultural dialogues that made the world and cultures inherently hybrid, interconnected, and one.
Works reflecting her Day Practice are:
During the "night", she explores her personal, emotional and psychological experience of being a woman and a mother. Her affinity for the night is developed by the uncontrollable desire to write poems in darkness at night during fits of her postpartum depression. The night emancipated her and inspired her écriture féminine. But what kindled her feminist awareness and radical solidarity is Gayatri Spivak's critical concern for the subaltern, the contradiction of existence as double binds caused by colonialism and modernity, and the creative play as non-compliance. From writing and filmmaking to painting and textile installation, often in the form of their formal convergence, the Night Practice particularly looks at women's experience, utterance and art forms in transgenerational, transcultural, transhistorical, inter-religious contexts, in order to probe the root of subalternity and possibility of liberation.
Works reflecting her Night Practice are:
One on One: Han Mengyun on Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
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Han Mengyun (b. 1989 in Wuhan, raised in Shenzhen, China) is an interdisciplinary and multimedia artist, filmmaker, writer and a mother. She is currently based in London. She 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, raised in Shenzhen, 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 Wood Carving,
Woodworking: Build a Qur'an Stand, Ebru Technique, Weave a Persian Kilim Carpet,
Natural Dyes & Patterns: Indian Block Printed Textile
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS AND PROJECTS
2024 Night Sutra, Busan Biennale: Seeing in the Dark, Busan, South Korea
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
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 GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Reintegrating Wisdom, Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile, Hong Kong (forthcoming)
2024 Unknownness is the Way, Delfina Foundation, London, UK
2024 The Threshold under Turbine Vents, Sunblanket Foundation, Seoul, South Korea
2024 The Inner Side of the Wind, Gallery Weekend Beijing, Beijing, China
2023 SIGG: Chinese Contemporary art from the Sigg Collection, SONGEUN, Seoul, South Korea
2023 Bordercrossing: Possibilities and Interactions, Yuz Museum, Shanghai
2023 Painting Unsettled, UCCA Edge, Shanghai, China
2022 AORA VI: Light, AORA Space, London, UK
2022 A Place for Concealment, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China
2021 The Dwelling Place of the Other in Me, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China
2021 Spring Discovery: Works on Paper, A Thousand Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu, China
2019 Activating Our Archives, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK
2018 Crowdsourcing and Representing the Self, UCL Institute of Education, London, UK
2018 Phala, Ruskin MFA Show, Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
2017 World By World, NordArt, Büdelsdorf, Germany
2017 Spring Discovery, A Thousand Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu, China
2016 On Paper, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
2014 Living in Chengdu, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan
2013 Ink of Two Cities, Sha Tin Town Hall, Hong Kong
2013 Painting as Voices, Jinling Art Museum, Nanjing, China
2012 The 8th International Ink Art Biennale of Shenzhen, Guan Shanyue Art Museum, China
2012 Samsara, Mason Gross Galleries, Rutgers University, NJ, USA
2012 Mausoleum of Dust, Bard College Thesis Show, NY, US
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2025 Lisa Movius, “Busan Biennale offers us navigation through auntie power”, The Art Newspaper
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”, catalog In Between Islands, Today Art Museum
SELECTED WRITING AND PUBLICATIONS
2024 “Han Mengyun: Night”, Afterall Journal, Issue 57, The University of Chicago Press
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
2025 Screening of artist film Night Sutra and Han Mengyun in conversation with Professor Ashley Thompson, Courtauld Institute, London, UK (forthcoming)
2024 Artist Talk “Beyond the East-West Paradigm”, Work.Master programme(MFA), HEAD-Genève, Switzerland
2024 Panel: Transmediating Traditions in China and Beyond, Chinese Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
2023 Artist Talk “Beyond the East-West Paradigm”, Centre for Chinese Visual 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 Han Mengyun in 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, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2021 Silent Thunder: The Intersection between Buddhism and Contemporary Art, UCCA, Beijing
2020 Artist Talk “Confession”, Muge Gallery, Chengdu, China
2019 Artist Talk “Activating Our Archives”, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK
RESIDENCY & GRANTS & AWARDS
2025 Commision grant, Centre for Heritage Arts & Textile, Hong Kong
2024 Artist Residency, Al Ula, Saudi Arabia
2024 Production support, Busan Biennale, Busan, South Korea
2024 Artist Residency, Delfina Foundation, London, UK
2024 K11 Art Foundation Artist Prize, Shortlist, Hong Kong
2023 30 Forbes Artists, China
2022 Artist Residency at ESEA Contemporary (formerly CFCCA), Manchester, UK
2021 Diriyah Foundation Commission, Saudi Arabia
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
TEACHING & VISITING
2024 MFA Fine Art, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK
2024 Slade School of Fine Art, University College of London, London, UK
2024 Work.Master programme(MFA), HEAD-Genève, Switzerland
2023 Centre for Chinese Visual 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
COLLECTIONS
Uli Sigg Collection (Switzerland)
Sammlung Wemhöner (Germany)
DC Collection (Thailand)
Zhi Museum (China)