Born in 1980 in Harbin, China, Song Yige grew up in this northeastern industrial city in the province of Heilongjiang. Quickly devoted to art as a child, she was known to forgo treats in order to buy water colours, brushes and drawing paper. Song graduated in 2007 from Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, before moving to Beijing where she currently lives and works. During her formative years she gained the patronage of artist Zeng Fanzhi. His mentorship and their creative collaboration continues and has resulted in her emergence onto the international art scene.

This first ever monograph showcases Song Yige’s first decade of painting and features her oil on canvas works. The artist’s characteristically emotional metaphors and depictions of the modern world involve everyday objects, anonymous characters, animals, and imaginary settings to create her atmospheric effects. Through fascinating large-scale and often melancholic works, Song Yige merges her childhood memories with autobiographical details to reinterpret contemporary life within the confinements of busy cityscapes. Thin layers of paint with dramatic contrasts result in a captivating glow which has already beome her signiature style. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at prominent institutions and galleries across Asia and a recent debut show curated by Zeng Fanzhi at the Marlborough Fine Art Gallery in London, which was her first exhibition outside of Asia.