Ce Jian’s works deal with the physicality of bodies and the illusionism in their representation. She draws on historical pictorial traditions and reformulates them in the context of a contemporary digital visuality. In doing so, she explores the artificial structure and aesthetics of the technically transformed body, be it a human figure or an object, using different approaches to highlight the role of distortion and hybridisation.
Seeing painting as a historically rich medium in which both knowledge and emotions are encoded, Ce Jian aims for a visual language that reflects the complexity of today’s image worlds. Throughout her practice she emphasises the dual existence of painting as a material body and a virtual window. Set in a compositional framework, her paintings unfold their own physicality through the texture of their layered surface, which combines clear geometry with expressive gestures and colour fields with delicate drawings.
In her recent works Ce Jian creates hybrid figures named after mythological beasts from European culture. The fantastic creatures are modelled on the anatomy of industrial robots, merging the technical components with elements from art history and natural history. With metamorphic fluidity, Ce Jian explores the boundaries between the human and non-human, the biological and mechanical. Her focus lies especially on the gendered concept of monstrosity both in classical mythology and modern technology, where the sphinx and the cyborg meet in their role as threatening (demonic) females, defined by their powerful composite bodies and uncanny intelligence. The connecting arc between history and futurism runs like a constant through her work.
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Ce Jian was born in 1984 in Shandong/China and emigrated to Germany in 1988. She studied fine arts with Georg Baselitz, Daniel Richter and Robert Lucander at the Berlin University of the Arts, where she graduated as Meisterschueler in 2008. She also studied art history, philosophy and East Asian art history at the Humboldt University and Freie Universität Berlin, obtaining a M.A. (Magister Artium) degree in 2009. She received a Ph.D. in art and visual history from the Humboldt University in 2017, with a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.
She currently lives and works in Berlin.
Solo Exhibitions
- 2023 (upcoming)
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 - 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
- 2023
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
Story, 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
Wanted Duchamps 3, Lage Egal, Berlin, Germany
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
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Studio Ce Jian
Kurfürstenstraße 15-16
10785 Berlin, Germany
info@cejian.de