Lily Wei is a Chinese-New Zealander artist currently living and working in London.
Her work begins with encounters. Drawn to objects and creatures that linger in memory, Wei uses painting as a way of examining why certain forms acquire an unexpected emotional charge.
Painting functions for Wei as a process of sustained attention. By dwelling on things that might otherwise go unnoticed, she explores how ordinary objects and creatures can become repositories for memory, emotion, and imagination. Her work considers the unstable boundary between what is seen and what is felt, revealing the strange and intimate lives that can emerge from the everyday.
Wei's paintings examine the moment at which observation becomes projection. Working from found objects, domestic artefacts, natural specimens and personal encounters, she explores how ordinary things acquire emotional, symbolic and narrative weight.
lilywei030@gmail.com
CV
Lily (Yuyang) Wei
b. 2000
AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS
Royal Academy summer exhibition
Shortlisted Finalist | 2025
New Contemporaries
Shortlisted Finalist | 2024
Youth Arts NZ award
Second Prize | 2020
PUBLICATION AND INTERVIEWS
2025 Sine Theta Magazine, Issue 34 Wasteland 荒, Oxford, UK
2025 Al-Tiba 9 Contemporary Art Magazine, Issue 18, Barcelona, Spain
2021 Sine Theta Magazine, Issue 19 High Noon 午, Oxford, UK
2021The Huts Magazine, Issue 2, Nigeria, West Africa
EDUCATION
University of the Arts London, Chelsea Campus, Bachelor of Fine Arts, First Class
Royal College of Art, Battersea Campus, Painting MA
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Nov/2025 In the Frame, Bomb Factory Holborn, London, UK
Nov/2025 Monster Farm, ANNEX (The Koppel Project), London, UK
Oct/2025 A Move-able Feast, Hypha Gallery HQ, London, UK
Sep/2025 Ruminate, The Koppel Project, London, UK
Sep/2025 As If I Were a Chair, Candid Arts Trust, London, UK
Sep/2025 Exeter Contemporary Open, Exeter Phoenix Gallery, Exeter, UK
July/2025 Un-palinodic Re-currence, Purist Gallery, London, UK
July/2025 REJECTS, Art Friend Gallery, London, UK
June/2025 404 Not Found, Fitzrovia Gallery, London, UK
June/2025 Inferential, The Koppel Project, London, UK
May/2025 i am the beast i worship, The Bath House, London, UK
March/2025 Envision, The Koppel Project, London, UK
Feb/2025 Daydream, Unihood x2 & Temperature Home, London, UK
Feb/2025 Interstitial Territories, The Handbag Factory, London, UK
Sep/2023 Emerging Artists, Millbank Centre, London, UK
Sep/2023 Beautiful Worlds, Stevens Building-RCA, London, UK
June/2023 Ideas Have People, Safe House 1, London, UK
Feb/2023 Frameless Contact, Old Brompton Gallery, London, UK
Dec/2022 Wǎng, Apiary Studio, London, UK
July/2022 Seeing You In Us, Triangle-UAL, London, UK
June/2022 De/Recons/Truct, Safe House 1, London, UK
Oct/2021 RAW, The Morgue-UAL, London, UK
Aug/2021 Pacific Breeze II, White Conduit Projects, London, UK
Aug/2021 Focus Art Fair: Color of Life, Fitzrovia Gallery, London, UK
June/2021 Gathered, Chelsea Parade Ground-UAL, London, UK
Jan/2021 Mail Art: Unlimited Dada, Propeller Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Jan/2021 Youth Arts Exhibition and Awards Night, Ellen Melville Centre, Auckland, New Zealand
Nov/2020 Christmas Exhibition, Depot Art Space, Auckland, New Zealand
Aug/2020 Landscapes of Orakei, Orakei Objet, Auckland, New Zealand
