Yu Hong: 'Another One Bites the Dust' at the Chiesetta della Misericordia

5 June 2024

The Asian Art Initiative of the Guggenheim Museum, New York, presents the first major exhibition in Europe of artist Yu Hong. 'Yu Hong: Another One Bites the Dust' will take place concurrently with the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, from 20 April to 24 November 2024. The presentation is curated by Dr. Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator at Large, Global Arts, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation.

'Yu Hong: Another One Bites the Dust' will feature new figurative and narrative paintings that respond to the architectural and cultural context of the Chiesetta della Misericordia, a deconsecrated Romanesque-Byzantine church founded by Augustinian friars in the tenth century. Conditioned by this architectural site, the exhibition will present Yu Hong’s work outside the bounds of art-historical conventions, examining the artist’s worlding of supernatural realism as a radically anachronistic stance that further destabilizes our notions of contemporary life.

In ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, Yu Hong borrows images of people, mostly women and children, in writhing poses expressing mental anguish or imminent physical danger, both real and fantastical, from the internet and social media. Set against a gold ground and shaped as large tondos or arched panels, the figures presented confront and upend the epic themes of sacred art while not shying away from the role of painting to portray the sorrows of the human condition.

On June 6, 2024, at 5pm, Nico Muhly will present the world premiere of 'To the Body' on site at the Chiesetta della Misericordia, Cannaregio, Venice, with a lecture followed by discussion.

Explore the project further here.

Film by Laura Bushell.