DENG Dafei (b. 1975, Jinzhou, Liaoning Province, China) and HE Hai (b. 1974, Zhengzhou, Henan) currently live in Beijing, China and are co-collaborators under the name The Utopia Group. Using residencies as their primary vehicle to create artworks together, their yearlong project Family Museum, in 2008, at the Zendai Art Museum, Shanghai practiced the concept of ‘art venue outside of the gallery system’ and earned them much acclaim.
DENG Dafei received an MFA in 2005 from the China Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China and a BA in Art Education from Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin, China. He was given the Shenzhou 19 Astronaut Award at the VIDEO Beijing Film Academy Multi-Media Festival and The Invisible Sword Award at the Yokohama Media Art Festival.
He has shown in numerous exhibitions including: In Interaction, Yokohama Media Art Festival, 2007; 2nd Doland Exhibition of Young Artists, Doland Art Museum, Shanghai, 2006; Opening the Door and Seeing the Luck: International Hangzhou Contemporary Art Exhibition, Beicangmen Art Center, Wuxi, China, 2006; Long March Capital, Long March Art Space, Beijing, 2006; Fortune Video, Common Place, Hangzhou, China, 2006; Rule and Possible, Zhejiang Province Museum, Hangzhou, China, 2005; Seeing inside from Physical Body: Chinese Performance Art Document, Macao, 2005; Launch, Long March Art Space, Beijing, China, 2005; OBSESSION – Turkey Video Festival, X Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey, 2005; Follow Me: Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition, Mori Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2005; Transparent Box, SOHO, Beijing, 2005; Double Reading, Directions Art Gallery, Hangzhou, China, 2005.
HE Hai received an MFA in Fine Art from Donghua University, Shanghai, a BA in Graphic Design from the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, as well as MA and BA degrees in Visual Art from the University of Marc Bloch, France where he is currently a Doctoral Candidate. He won the Annual Prize for the Best Exhibition in 2006 at the Looking up Luck show.
He has shown in numerous exhibitions including: Shenzhen Mobile, Hangzhou Exhibition Center of Peace, Hangzhou, 2009; Two Points, Palazzo Frisacco, Tolmezzo, Italy, 2008; Family Museum Project, Shenzhen Free Art Creation Base, Shenzhen, 2008; Intrude: Art Life 366, ZenDai MOMA, Shanghai, 2008; Opening the Door and Seeing the Luck: International Hangzhou Contemporary Art Exhibition, Beicangmen Art Center, Wuxi, China, 2006; Looking up the Luck: International Hangzhou Contemporary Art Exhibition, Feng Shan Art Space, Hangzhou, 2006; Gift, Museum of Normal Institute of Hangzhou, Hangzhou, China, 2005; Body Measure, Place de Palait Universitaire, Strasbourg, France, 2005.
For additional information about this artist, visit Mutual Art
