Ce Jian (b. 1984, Shandong, China) moved to Germany in 1988. She studied fine arts with Georg Baselitz, Daniel Richter and Robert Lucander at the Berlin University of the Arts, graduating in 2008 as Meisterschülerin. From 2006 to 2007, she attended Goldsmiths, University of London. She earned a Magister Artium in art history, philosophy, and East Asian art history from Humboldt University and Freie Universität Berlin in 2009, followed by a PhD in art and visual history from Humboldt University of Berlin in 2017. From 2019 to 2020, she taught in the Department of Art History at the University of Graz, Austria. She lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
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Ce Jian’s work explores how reality is visually constructed. Through painting, drawing, and installation, she examines the visual techniques and models that shape our perception, questioning a rationalist understanding of reality.
Her practice navigates the tension between theory and matter, reflected in the interplay between complex conceptual frameworks and the unruliness of painterly material. Her compositions oscillate between surface and depth, construction and distortion, focusing on the fictive space and physical presence of images rather than storytelling.
In recent years, Ce Jian has explored a utopian nature at the intersection of history and futurism, mythology and natural science, biology and robotics. This research has produced semi-abstract figures of non-human cyborgs, whose hybrid morphology merges organic and technological elements into transformable composite bodies. Through her work, she constructs fictive realities that are both analytical and speculative, while remaining grounded in material presence.
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Watch the artist portrait / documentary by ArtDOC (2025): “Ce Jian: Vortex”
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Solo Exhibitions
- 2025
Shapeshifter, HOW Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Words of Art, Ce Jian & Yuzheng Cheng, Kunstraum Nürnberg, Nuremberg, Germany - 2023
Belly of the Beast, White Space, Beijing, China - 2021
Paradise, White Space, Beijing, China - 2019
Words of Art, Ce Jian & Yuzheng Cheng, Yell Space, Shanghai, China - 2018
Armada, White Space, Beijing, China
On Paper 2, Zapbeijing, Beijing, China
Bannermen, Gallery SU:, Seoul, Korea - 2017
Transeuropa, Ce Jian & Yuzheng Cheng, Whiteconcepts, Berlin, Germany
CAPTCHA, Philine Cremer Gallery, Dusseldorf, Germany - 2016
The Grand Illusion, White Space, Beijing, China
Elephant, NON Berlin, Berlin, Germany - 2015
Velum, Philine Cremer Gallery, Dusseldorf, Germany - 2014
Projection, White Space, Beijing, China
Frontiers, Philine Cremer Gallery, Dusseldorf, Germany
Tangram, Galerie Herold, Bremen, Germany - 2012
Smile Without A Face, White Space, Beijing, China
A Maze, Galerija Contra, Koper, Slovenia - 2011
The Maker, Alexander Ochs Galleries, Berlin, Germany
Models, Galerija Contra, Koper, Slovenia - 2010
Fact=Fiction, White Space, Beijing, China
Marco Polo. A Travel Guide, Andrew James Art, Shanghai, China - 2009
1 für ALLE, Läkemäker Gallery, Berlin, Germany - 2008
Wie Sie sehen…, Läkemäker Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Selected Group Exhibitions
- 2025
The Back of the Treasure, Galerie im Körnerpark, Berlin, Germany
Displaced Becoming, Kunstpunkt Berlin, Berlin, Germany - 2024
Returning to the Sea, TAG Art Museum, Qingdao, China
Worlds Beyond, Unit London, UK - 2023
From the Other Hill, Guardian Art Center, Beijing, China
Form and Meaning, Yuan Art Museum, Beijing, China
From Body to Dream, Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Painting Unsettled, UCCA Edge, Shanghai, China - 2022
The Situation is Excellent, Glue, Berlin, Germany
Persona and Parasite, White Space, Beijing, China
The Hearing Trumpet: Part 1, Galerie Marguo, Paris, France - 2021
Parallel Universes – Parafacts and Parafictions, designrepublic, Shanghai, China
Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu, China
Futurism of the Past, Beijing Contemporary Art Expo, Beijing, China
Sonderlage, Lage Egal, Berlin, Germany - 2020
El Lissitzky’s Rooms, Surplus Space, Wuhan, China - 2019
A White Space Odyssey, White Space, Beijing, China
Kunstraum Berlin, German Embassy, Beijing, Germany
Yellow Reflection, Galerie Liusa Wang, Paris, France
The X / Part 1, Whiteconcepts, Berlin, Germany - 2018
Art Patrons, Qiao Space, Shanghai, China
A World in a Grain of Sand, Fosun Foundation Collection, Sanya, China
Remixing Ground: Deconstructing Damage, La Chapelle de Clairefontaine, France - 2017
The Second Self, Peres Projects, Berlin, Germany
The 6th Art Sanya / Huayu Youth Award 2017, Sanya, China
On Paper One, Zapbeijing, Beijing, China
I’m not a robot, Ce Jian & Lin Ke, Philine Cremer Gallery, Dusseldorf, Germany - 2016
Our Painting, Yang Art Museum, Beijing, China
Painting As Straight Gate, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
New Capitalism, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chengdu, China
B-Movie, J:Gallery, Shanghai, China - 2015
Saloon, Sexauer Gallery, Berlin, Germany - 2014
Painting Lesson IV, Yang Gallery, Beijing, China - 2013
Aufwachen! Besser machen!, Kleine Humboldt-Galerie, Berlin, Germany