Mei Yi, born in 1962 in Gaoyou (Jiangsu Province), graduated in 1989 from the Nanjing Art University. In 1995 he held a solo exhibition at the Beijing Contemporary Art Museum. After teaching at the Nanjing Art University, in 2002 he earned an MA at the China Academy of Art. In the same year he was honored as guest painter by the Department of Chinese Painting in Jangsu Province.
Some of his first paintings were published by Art World (1999, n. 5/6), and by Jiangsu Pictorial Magazine (1999, n. 4).
In 2002 he started the “Song of Grace” oil paintings series which narrates a history of necessary ubiquity and cohabitation of different cultures. Profoundly linked to Christian iconography, Mei Yi’s paintings strike the onlooker as an explosive balance between the deep influence of Chinese traditional culture and a faithful belief in a Western God. Typical Chinese shadows take the shape of a Mother and Child, suggesting Mei Yi longs for maternal love, inside a tempest of colors where memories of medieval cathedrals co-exists with Buddhist symbolism.