Cheng Yuzheng's First Beijing Solo Show at REFLEXION
REFLEXION in Beijing will host 'Life on Mars,' a solo exhibition by Cheng Yuzheng, opening May 16, 2026. It marks the artist's debut solo show at the gallery and his first solo exhibition in Beijing. Born in Suzhou in 1977, Cheng graduated from the Berlin University of Arts and now lives and works in Berlin. His practice explores painting's slow unfolding, pushing its limits by reorganizing familiar elements. The work blends fragments of daily life, art history, anecdotes, and mythology into believable illusions, akin to magic. The exhibition title references cultural touchstones like the Y2K bug, Microsoft, Nostradamus, Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey,' Michelangelo, and David Bowie, reflecting on human scale and technology. Cheng questions irreplaceability in an age of Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure, where algorithms act as modern oracles. Painting, he suggests, remains among the most human of endeavors.
Key facts
- Exhibition 'Life on Mars' opens May 16, 2026 at REFLEXION, Beijing.
- Cheng Yuzheng's first solo show at REFLEXION and first solo exhibition in Beijing.
- Cheng Yuzheng was born in Suzhou in 1977.
- He graduated from Berlin University of Arts.
- He currently lives and works in Berlin.
- The exhibition explores themes of technology, human scale, and painting's necessity.
- References include Y2K bug, Microsoft, Nostradamus, Stanley Kubrick, Michelangelo, and David Bowie.
- The artist aims to make illusions believable through conceptually set scenes.
Entities
Artists
- Cheng Yuzheng
- Michelangelo
- Stanley Kubrick
- David Bowie
- Nostradamus
- Ray Kurzweil
Institutions
- REFLEXION
- Berlin University of Arts
- Google Cloud
- Amazon Web Services
- Microsoft Azure
- TED
Locations
- Beijing
- China
- Suzhou
- Berlin
- Germany