Born in Xianyou, 1959, Shen Yuan currently lives and works in Paris. After graduating from Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, Shen participated in the avant-garde art movement in China. Shortly after participating in the historic “Chinese Modern Art Exhibition” held in Beijing, she decided to leave China in 1990 and moved to Paris, France, with her husband Huang Yongping, who was also an artist. Shen expressed her feelings and melancholy about leaving her home country in a humble and decent manner. She invites the public to reflect on these situations without placing any value judgments on them. Her work evokes migration, language, memory and those omitted people and objects, creating space for poetic encounters between cultures.

In 2017 and 2018, Shen Yuan held two major exhibitions in China, “Without Wall” (Minsheng Museum, Beijing, 2017) and “Hon: Niki de Saint Phalle & Shen Yuan” (Power Station of Art, 2018). She presented her solo exhibitions extensively at other venues, including Red Brick Art Museum (Beijing, 2022), UCCA (Beijing, 2009), International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Vancouver, 2007), Chisenhale Gallery (London, 2001), Kunsthalle Bern (Switzeland, 2000), etc. She also participated many group exhibitions at WEST BUND (Shanghai, 2019), MAXXI (Rome, 2019), MoMA (San Francisco, 2019), Guggenheim Bilbao Museum (Bilbao, 2018), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, 2017), La Monnaie de Paris (Paris, 2017), Musée Cernuschi (Paris, 2011,2021), as well as art events, including Shenzhen Biennale (2017), Busan Biennale (2016), Shanghai Biennale (2012), Venice Biennale (2007), Gwangju Biennial (2006) and Liverpool Biennale (2004).