Sun Yuan & Peng Yu

Sun Yuan & Peng Yu: self-examination rather than mere provocation

Sun Yuan was born in 1972 in Beijing, China and Peng Yu was born in 1974 in Heilongjiang, China. They studied in the same years at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, the city where they still live and work today. Throughout the 90s, they started to become a prominent partnership in the contemporary art world, they came away from the artistic norm of that time while also questioning the principles of the international art world. Their use and adoption of unusual materials, their engagement in past struggles and their awareness of the current context are all factors in making their work relevant and extremely relatable.  Throughout their artistic career, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu have deliberately incorporated provocative materials into their work, ranging from live animals to human flesh, bones and oil. The work of Sun Yuan & Peng Yu is based on the incessant confirmation of paradox, on the perpetual search for the dualities between reality and falsehood, the manifest and the concealed. Their apparently provocative work is the demonstration of a continual analysis of life through experience in which the viewing public is often invited to participate, equipped with the will to find the essence and substance hidden behind appearance.