Shi Yiran
Born in 1983 in Inner Mongolia and currently lives and works in Hangzhou.
Shi Yiran’s figurative painting practice has long been rooted in her experiences of travel. She is deeply fascinated by the relationship between abstract, distant temporalities and the immediacy of lived reality. Years of living away from home have cultivated in her a persistent sense of rootlessness.
Shifts and juxtapositions of space serve as an enduring internal catalyst for her work, from which she develops a painterly language where locality, site, visual experience, and memory intertwine. Through a precise handling of surface texture, Shi captures a sense of the supersensory and evokes subtly estranged atmospheres.
Her ongoing exploration of the semantic potential of color sometimes extends beyond the gamut of standard industrial printing, allowing luminous spatial fields to emerge toward the viewer and generate ever-unfolding parallel realities.
Drawing from the layered color processes of printmaking, she transforms brushstrokes into distinct zones. She also employs tape collage in a restrained manner — the deliberately fabricated traces and incision-like marks collide with calligraphic gestures, producing a poetic dislocation of time and space.
Her works are included in the collections of the Art Museum of Tokyo University of the Arts, Zhejiang Art Museum, and Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024
Here and Then，Ferris Gallery, Shenzhen, China
Northeast by North，Tianmuli R PLUS, Hangzhou, China
2023
Bordering Memory, Studio Gallery, Shanghai, China
2022
Emotional Geography , Arch Gallery, Changsha, China
2021
Mirage, 1000 Press, Hangzhou, China
2017
Peacock Town, Yatobi Gallery, Beijing, China
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023
Twin Fluxes, Mu Art Center, Hangzhou, China
Divergent Paths: Different / Potential / Fluid, Arch Gallery, Changsha, China
2022
BLOCK Gallery Opening Exhibition, BLOCK Gallery, Hangzhou, China
2021
Accessible Tomorrow: Young Artists in the Greater Bay Area, Macau, China
2019
PALATEETTE: Opening Exhibition, SAG Hushen Gallery, Shanghai, China
Future Scripts, Artdoor Gallery, Shanghai, China
2017
Drawing as Intention: Figurative Painting and Drawing Exhibition, China Academy of Art Museum, Hangzhou, China
2016
Beyond “Utopia”, Castello Di Rivara Contemporary Art Museum, Turin, Italy
Formless, Ying Space, Beijing, China
University Outlook: Ten Years of China Academy of Art, China Academy of Art Museum, Hangzhou, China
2015
After Utopia, Paratissima Art Fair China Pavilion, Turin, Italy
2014
13th Zhejiang Art Exhibition, Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, China
2009
Scenery of Art, Tokyo University of the Arts Museum, Tokyo, Japan
11th National Art Exhibition, Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, China
Narrative China: 4th Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum, Chengdu, China
2008
3rd National Youth Art Exhibition, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China