Along with Li Shan and Wang Guangyi, Yu Youhan is one of the main artists of Political Pop to emerge in the avant-garde movement in the 1990's, fusing Chinese iconography and Western artistic expression. His work has had a major impact on the cultural scene, and has influenced and inspired a generation of younger artists. Yu Youhan's earlier work is directly influenced by his experiences during the Cultural Revolution, with prominent imagery of political propaganda and socialist realism. Before constructing this pictorial universe, he practiced an informal and materialist abstraction. His work unravels and reconstructs the meandering histories of this diverse environment. As reflected in his pictures, he employs an aesthetic methodology that blends and exceeds seemingly contradictory visual traditions. Yu Youhan earned fame with his highly acclaimed Mao portrait series. He decorates the iconic images with flowers that blend into the foreground and background. It is not only a decorative gesture, but also an attempt to humanize the late leader.

Yu Youhan has recently shifted his artistic approach in search of a new paint language and subject matter. His latest work consists of landscape paintings that resemble pastorals of a forgotten utopia. Yu Youhan’s extensive oeuvre combines multiple perspectives and investigates the structure of cultural identity in China through an ongoing exploration of various pictorial techniques. His paintings remain ubiquitous, yet intriguing.

Yu Youhan was born in Shanghai in 1943. He graduated from the Central Academy of Art and Design, Beijing in 1973. He resides and works in Shanghai. Yu Youhan's work has shown widely nationally as well as internationally. Recent exhibitions include Yu Youhan's Paintings, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai(2011); Out of Shanghai, Museum gegenstandsfreier Kunst, Otterndorf, Germany(2009); Writing on the Wall, Chinese New Realism and Avant-Garde in the Eighties and nineties, The Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands(2008); Study Practice, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai(2005); Chine, le Corps Partout?, Musee d'Art ContemporainParis(2004); Museum of Contemporary Art (Marseilles, 2004) and Landscape of Yi Mengshan, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai(2004). He has also exhibited in the 22nd Sao Paulo Biennale (1994), 45th Venice Biennale (1993) and 1st Asia Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art (Brisbane, 1991).