We are pleased to announce that Shun Art Gallery Tokyo will present a solo exhibition by YU Runde from June 6 to July 13 at its Harajuku space.
Yu Runde’s Illusion series creates striking visual tension through abstract and expressive techniques rooted in Chinese ink painting. His work explores fundamental themes such as existence and consciousness, reality and illusion, emotion and life. Through the careful juxtaposition of ink structures, space, and lines, the artist constructs scenes that feel both familiar and unfamiliar, inviting viewers to detach from everyday perception and immerse themselves in a realm between the real and the imagined. This approach not only challenges the boundaries of reality and illusion but also prompts reflection on one’s relationship with the world, urging contemplation of the essence of being and the meaning of life—ultimately offering a spiritual experience that transcends the material.
In the context of contemporary art, Yu Runde stands out as a keen observer and profound thinker. His creations are deeply rooted in Eastern philosophical reflection while also embracing the experimental spirit of Western contemporary art, forming a unique visual language. Rather than depicting the objective world, his work filters reality through subjective consciousness, presenting a world that is experienced. The hazy light, fluid brushstrokes, and shifting forms echo French philosopher Maurice
Merleau-Ponty’s notion that “perception is not a copy of the world but a participation in it.” Yu’s art interrogates the authenticity of perception: when reality is mediated by memory, emotion, and imagination, what then is “true”? His work also resonates with Jean Baudrillard’s theory of the simulacrum, where in the age of consumerism and digital media, images are divorced from their referents and exist as self-replicating sign systems. The blurred forms and dreamy halos in his paintings become metaphors for contemporary existence—our lives shaped by algorithms, advertising, and social media into a “hyperreality,” with art serving to expose the absurdities of this symbolic order.
Viewing Yu Runde’s work, one senses veiled faces, fractured lines, and indistinct figures—spiritual portraits of urban life. In our hyperconnected digital society, the individual often experiences deeper alienation. Yet the artist goes beyond critique: sudden bursts of color and dynamic brushwork hint at the possibility of resistance. As Herbert Marcuse suggested, art holds emancipatory power—its aesthetic experience reawakens our suppressed sensibilities. Yu’s painting process itself becomes a temporary heterotopia, an imagined escape from instrumental reason, urging viewers to rediscover the self through contemplation.
What further distinguishes Yu Runde is how his work, while grounded in Eastern thought, speaks in an international visual idiom. Concepts like Laozi and Zhuangzi’s “mutual generation of being and non-being” and Zen’s “beyond words” manifest in his interplay of void and form, presence and absence. His delicate strokes, misty light, and tense compositions push the limits of perception while illuminating the spiritual dilemmas and yearning for freedom that define modern life. His art feels dreamlike yet eerily real, reminding us that what we see may not be true, and what is invisible may not be void.
This exhibition is not only a summary of a significant stage in Yu Runde’s artistic journey, but also an invitation—for viewers to momentarily step beyond the confines of daily experience and enter a spiritual realm shaped by ink, light, color, and symbol. Here, the boundaries of the real and the illusory dissolve, the divide between matter and consciousness breaks down, and art itself becomes a form of communication beyond language.
