Song Dong

Song Dong (b. 1966) is a Beijing-based artist. His work reveals the impermanence and transience of human endeavor, ranging from performance and video to photography, theatre and sculpture. He is especially known for his large-scale installations. He has developed into a significant contemporary art figure in the progression of Chinese conceptual art.

Song Dong was born in Beijing. Due to China’s political upheavals, his once wealthy family became impoverished. His father, Song Shiping was sent to a re-education camp, charged with being a “counter-revolutionary.” He was primarily raised by his mother, Zhao Xiangyuan, who encouraged him to begin painting at an early age.

Song Dong graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Capital Normal University in Beijing in 1989. In 1992 he married artist, Yin Xiuzhen. After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Song Dong left painting and the he and Yin Xiuzhen began developing avant garde and experimental art.

Song Dong was an artist in residence at Alfred University's Institute for Electronic Arts. IEA and the Burchfield Penney establised the Electronic Arts Alliance in 2013 which will present the work of Alfred students, faculty and resident artists at the Center in Buffalo.