Yun-Fei Ji (b. 1963 in Beijing, China) earned his BFA from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and his MFA from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. In his work, Ji utilizes the structures and symbols of folkloric tradition to speak truth to power. Full of phantoms, demons, and other spectral characters, Ji’s paintings have frequently functioned as metaphorical critiques of oppressive power structures—and strategies of defiance. In his ink and watercolor compositions, these ghostly figures are stand-ins for the complex political undercurrents and cultural tug-of-war shaping rural communities in a rapidly developing world. 

Ji’s work has been widely exhibited throughout the US and Europe. Solo exhibitions include shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. Ji’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Asia Society Museum in New York, Baltimore Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the British Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Harvard Art Museums, the Hammer Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum. Ji currently lives and works between New York and Pennsylvania.