Jinbin Chen
Jinbin Chen
Born 1994 in Guangdong, China
Lives and works between Oslo, Norway, and Beijing, China
Chen describes his practice as encounters between bodies, images, histories, narratives, and moments that may seem fleeting yet hold the potential to transform intimacy, becoming, and belonging. Desire, gender temperament, power hierarchy, and the politics of intimacy remain central to his work, rooted in lived experience yet expanded into collective imaginaries. Painting has been the core of his practice in recent years, intertwined with text, object, and sculpture. His portraits often depict friends, imagined figures, or fragmented bodies in states of openness, vulnerability, or anonymity. Through these figures, Chen constructs an erotic language that is sensuous without being explicit.
These compositions reflect on intimacy in the digital era, the fragmentary consumption of images, and the reappearance of classical or literary references such as ancient poetry or gesture in contemporary contexts.
Recent solo exhibitions include Setting Off Alone From the Far Side of the Moon (LNM, Oslo, 2025); Dream Atlas (the Shophouse, Hong Kong, 2024); Portholes (STANDARD [Oslo], Oslo, 2023); Prophecies of the Post-Angel Era (Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo, 2023); Returnees (Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, 2022).
Recent group exhibitions include Sweating Under Cold Water (Hua International, Beijing, 2025); Tender Comrade (White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, 2025); Birth of Poetry (the Shophouse, Hong Kong, 2025); Widely Varying Styles.
Chen received his MFA from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in 2021 and his BFA from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, in 2019. His works are held in the collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Denver Art Museum; The National Museum Norway; White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney; and X Museum, Beijing.
Jinbin Chen is represented by Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, and STANDARD (Oslo).
He will present his first solo exhibition with Hua International in May 2026 during Gallery Weekend Beijing.
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When Clouds are Floating White as Swans
Jinbin Chen 22 Mai - 17 Juli 2026Hua International is pleased to present When Clouds are Floating White as Swans, Jinbin Chen's first solo exhibition with the gallery. The title is taken from the opening line of...Weiterlesen -
Sweating Under Cold Water
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Gordon Matta-Clark, Gordon Hall, Jinbin Chen 30 August - 18 Oktober 2025What does it mean to sweat under cold water? This quiet contradiction—of internal heat under an external coolness—becomes a generative metaphor for forms of intimacy, resistance, and queer embodiment that...Weiterlesen
