Cai Lei

Cai Lei’s works explore the relationship between illusion and space. From his interest in planarity, he carves out an illusory conceptual space that oscillates between his creations' second and third dimensions. Working in both painting and mixed media sculptural relief, light plays an important factor in enhancing this illusion of depth. Painted spaces of interior hallways or corners simultaneously protrude and recede depending on the viewer’s experience of the work. Cai Lei graduated in 2015 with a Master’s Degree in Sculpture at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing. An award-winning young artist from the 80s generation. He has exhibited internationally including the Yangtze Art Museum (Chongqing), Foundation Taylor (Paris), Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (Taiwan), CAFA Museum (Beijing), Poly Art Museum (Beijing), Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art (USA), Today Art Museum (Beijing), and Museum of Contemporary Art Bonn (Germany). Recent solo exhibitions include: “Invisible Spaces,” ICICLE Cultural Space, Paris (France, 2025) “Constructing Void,” Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong (China, 2025); “Space of Space,” ART Yang Yun, Shanghai, (China, 2024); “Supremacist Space”, Tang Contemporary Art, Seoul (Korea, 2022); “Metonymic Liminality,” Song Art Museum, Beijing, (China, 2021); “Intermediate Capacity,” Enclave Contemporary, Shenzhen, (China, 2021); “Block”, Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing (China, 2020); “23 Square Meters”, Whitestone Gallery, Taiwan, (China, 2018); “Échelle des plans”, Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing (China, 2016); “In Ambiguous Sight, Unaccompanied”, Tang Contemporary Art (Hong Kong SAR, 2016). Recent Group exhibitions include: “Decade One: Chronolect,” Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong (China, 2025); “Web Of Being: The Living Network,” Tang Contemporary Art, (Singapore, 2025); The Armory Show, Javits Center, New York, (USA, 2025); Art Paris, Grand Palais, Paris (France, 2025); Art Genève, Palexpo, Genève (Switzerland, 2025); Art SG, Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center, (Singapore, 2025 ); “Moments Are Momuments,” BY ART MATTERS, Hang Zhou (China, 2024); “Exposition d’art France-Chine,” Musée d'Art de l'institut des Beaux-Arts du Sichuan, Chongqing (China, 2024); “Golden,” Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing (China, 2024); “Limited Intentionality,” ShanghART, M50, Shanghai (China, 2024), ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai (China, 2023); Art Shenzhen, Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center, Shenzhen (China, 2023); Tokyo Gendai, PACIFICO Yokohama, Tokyo, (Japan, 2023); Taipei Dangdai Art and Ideas, Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, Taipei, (Taiwan, 2023); Art SG, Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center (Singapore, 2023); The Beijing International Art Biennale, Beijing Exhibition Center, Beijing (China, 2022); Art Busan, BEXCO, Busan, (Korea, 2021); “Extended Theatre - Nanhai 1st Public Art Exhibition”, Nanhai Qiandeng Lake Park (China, 2020); “Roots of Clouds Adrift —Temporality: OCAT Nanjing Public Art Project”, OCAT Nanjing (China, 2019-2020); “Wall Space: As Defining Boundary of Modern Painting”, Phoenix Seewell International Art Center, Fuzhou (China, 2019); “Motif and material”, Tang Contemporary Art (Hong Kong SAR, 2017); “Among”, Museum of Contemporary Art Bonn, Bonn (Germany, 2015), etc.