Press release

The exhibition brings together large-format paintings that extend his philosophical engagement with history and politics, alongside smaller works drawn from dreams, film stills, and private life. These more intimate pieces unfold through freer brushwork and flexible supports, foregrounding the artist’s ongoing exploration of the tension between collective narratives and personal memory.

Across these paintings, historical iconographies, mythological references, and personal archives are displaced, reinterpreted, and transformed into floating signifiers. Through this process, Mingkai He positions painting as both a tool for reconstructing historical memory and a practice shaped by the very forces it interrogates—holding ambiguity and clarity in a dynamic conceptual equilibrium.

Mingkai He (b. 1995, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China) lives and works in Shanghai. He received his B.A. in Fine Arts from Capital Normal University, Beijing (2016–2020), his M.A. in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London (2020–2023), and a Ph.D. in Art Theory from Shanghai Theatre Academy (2024).