Cheng Ran, b.1981, China

As a leading figure of China’s young generation of video and photography artists, Cheng Ranwas born in Inner Mongolia, China in 1981 and studied at China Academy of Fine Arts where he was awarded a BA in 2004. After graduation, Cheng Ran started his own career and his video breaks away from his predecessors’ radical depiction of contemporary life and social change in China, and delves into a theatre where the cinematic, poetic and mysterious intertwine. Music, youth culture, and European art house cinema are the inspiration and have been haunting the artists motion pictures.Cheng’s videos project the innermost of young Chinese and capture the living experience greatly impacted by the globalized cultures and cultural policies. They integrate the performative, the visual from electronica and rock’n’roll, and in a few cases, the aesthetics of Chinese ink painting into his language that is informed by the late 20th century arthouse cinema.

The video work <Ghost(Hamlet)>featured in the exhibitionRe-staging of Shakespeare's classic drama of the prince's revenge (Hamlet). Professional actors rehearsed a 15 minutes act, half of which performed on stage, the other half performed in water. A work highlights one's control and freedom of the body and mind.

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2011　Hot Blood, Warm Blood, Cold Blood, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne, Beijing,China
　　　Circadian Rhythm,Qingying Gallery, Hangzhou, China
2009　Immersion and Distance, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

Selected Group Exhibitions
2011　Video Art in China - MADATAC , Reina Sofia Muesum, Madrid
　　　Thirty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art – Moving Image in China (1988-2011), Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai
　　　Reunion Island Biennale of Today’s Art 2011, Reunion Island, France
　　　Daybreak, Arario Gallery, Beijing, China; Cheonan, Korea
2010　“The Tell-Tale Heart ”, James Cohan Gallery, Shanghai,China,New York, USA
2008　Farewell to Post-colonialism: The Third Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou, China