An Existential Uniting of Classic and Contemporary: A review of Yu Hong’s ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, Venice 2024

     Yu Hong’s Another One Bites the Dust is simultaneously uplifting, depressing, and profoundly moving. I leave contemplating the very essence of life, birth, death and suffering. Hong’ paintings are a stark reminder of the unwavering, unchanging cycles of human existence.

     Running alongside Venice’s 60th Biennale Arte, contemporary Chinese artist Yu Hong (b. 1966) has been granted inhabitance of the Chiesetta della Misericordia: a beautiful, deconsecrated church whose history spans a millennium. Yu Hong is a talented and prolific painter, but the immense power of this installation is rooted in the dialogue between her paintings and the church where they reside.

     The first painting near the entrance is small and exquisitely painted. Nestled in an enclave, the arched triptych canvas mirrors the church’s architectural charm. Small compared to everything else, this painting humbly encapsulates the show’s wider overarching theme of life’s circular journey from birth to death. Popping against a gold background, a series of expressively painted hands read from left to right, from infant to fragile old age. This is the first glimpse of Yu Hong’s signature painting style. Her thick brushstrokes are heavy with emotion and humanity; she clearly has a primal instinct for the application of paint.

     Yu Hong’s paintings simultaneously dominate and surrender to the interior of the the Chiesetta della Misericordia. Harmony reigns. The work seems to inherently belong here- it’s impossible to imagine the paintings anywhere else. On a white gallery wall Yu Hong’s paintings are impressive. In situ here in Venice, they are incredible. The artwork has a distinct visual language that, although undoubtedly contemporary, seamlessly aligns with the church and its original artwork still. The original biblical mosaics complement Hong’s paintings, and vice versa; there is balance. It doesn’t feel like Hong is taking from the church but enhancing it. I wish the paintings could live here permanently.

     At first glance, the alterpiece could be mistaken for the original. It echoes the traditional biblical frescoes that populate alters across Italy and beyond. Hong’s own alter piece- made especially for the space- is a direct descendent of centuries of venetian art, but also distinctly modern. Her paintings explore contemporary life in China, investigating the peculiarities of modern society. Yet, her visual language of storytelling is still consistent with the painters of the Renaissance, which I find very moving. Our human experience- although now so different- has at the same time stayed fundamentally the same as when Titian and Tiepolo were painting their frescoes. As people, we are still born the same, love and suffer the same, and die the same as they did. This felt a poignant and hopeful reminder amogst the turmoil and chaos of life in the 2020s. For me, this sparked a deep appreciation of life’s simplicity. I feel comforted to think that centuries- even millennia- of humans have experienced life’s joys and heartaches just as I do.

     The works of Venetian great Giambattista Tiepolo spring to mind. Hong’s alterpiece composition shares a similar essence with dynamic movement and allegorical figures. Her combination of radical modernity and traditional historical tropes create a compelling blend of old and new.

     The human journey from birth to death is explored viscerally in oil paint in a series of huge works either side of the alter. The influence of biblical art is immediately apparent. The canvases’ distinct shapes and opulent gold backgrounds transport me back to Renaissance rooms in galleries across Europe. The first of Hong’s panels celebrates the joy of birth and childhood with a series of endearing babies sat in buckets (so charming that it's hard not to crack a smile.) This charm is steeply contrasted in the other panels. Reading left to right like a sentence, the far-right panel symbolises gruesome death with stacked pairs of feet in a morgue. Hollow, visceral and quite disturbing, Hong captures the flesh of death just as well as that of the living. The sheer fleshiness achieved in every figure is powerful, and a testament to human life as well as Hong’s alchemy with the medium of paint.

     Painter Jenny Saville wanders into my mind looking at another of Hong’s panels, which is filled with a mass of writing bodies. The female bodies- heads not included- are wrapped in plastic like products. A powerful comment on the objectification of women, and the overt sexualisation most women face in their adult lives. The bodies, piled on top of each other, lie down submissive or in sexually suggestive poses. As seen too in Saville’s painting ‘Fulcrum,’ the women are faceless slabs of meat, packaged ready for consumption by society.

     Scattered with chairs facing in different directions, the church beckons visitors to sit down and soak up Hong’s paintings for a while. Halfway through my visit, the heavy silence gives way to enchanting biblical choir music that radiates from every pore of the building. Transcendent doesn’t begin to describe it- I feel like I’ve been plucked from Earth and dropped in the 14th century, or maybe in Heaven. This mesmeric music was composed especially for the installation, and creates a synergy between painting and sound that is truly hypnotic. Hong’s work is elevated even further from painting exhibition to immersive installation.

     Hong’s painting ability truly comes into its own in a huge circular canvas capturing the seconds following birth. It’s incredibly simple- no noise, just the shock and physicality of human birth. This piece is a testament to the power of paint, and its wonderful ability to illustrate human life. Not just illustrate- it does more than that. Oil paint embodies what it is to be human; hopes, dreams, suffering. We have explored our existence in oil paint for centuries upon centuries. Yu Hong’s work is just the newest in this ancient tradition, proving that paint is just as relevant in our contemporary world as it was during the Renaissance. Another One Bites the Dust isn’t a painting exhibition; it’s a spiritual awakening.

Originally published in 2024

© Nik Macey 2025