Yongping Ren is an artist and art worker currently based in Melbourne, Australia. His expanded ceramic practice is focused on the way in which clay records gestures, thoughts, desires and attitudes over time. Clay’s fluidity and impermanence in the studio actively reflects back the liminality of experience, and in the process challenges the conventions of strength and permanence in ceramic cultures. Through tensions between public/private, permanent and fragile, Ren’s works collapse the sacred and profane—distinctions that are replaced by more marginalized forms of spatial intimacy, failure, and instability.
Born in 1990 in Xiaoyi, China, Yongping is currently study MFA (research) at VCA, University of Melbourne. He holds a BFA (Theatre Production) from VCA, University of Melbourne, and MFA (coursework) from RMIT, Melbourne. Yongping also holds a Diploma of Live Production Theatre and Events from Swinburne, Melbourne, and an Advanced Diploma of Visual Art from LaTrobe College of Art and Design, Melbourne.
Yongping's work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including the Huaniao Island International Art Festival in China. He has performed work with Benjamin woods as Lèlè 1 at Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, and Lèlè 2 in group exhibitions at Testing Grounds as part of a Chinese Museum Art Collective, and showed his works in A Queer Art Exhibition celebrating Queer Creativity for IDAHOBIT 2024 and 2025 at RMIT, Melbourne. In 2024, he held his first solo exhibition, Rúyì, at MAILBOX ARI. In 2025, Ren had his residences at ARIXCHANGE with Sawtooth ARI and Blindside ARI, presenting the outcome open studio Red paint on concrete floor (with Olly Read) at Blindside ARI, Melbourne, and residency in Absolute space Air Sanho Art Lab, Taiwan.
Yongping has held various volunteer and intern positions at artist-run spaces and worked as Gallery Assistant at Bus Projects (2022-23). He is currently co-director of Run Artist Run in Docklands and artistic director at Blindside ARI, Australia.
CV
Education
2026- Master of Fine Art (Research), VCA, University of Melbourne
21-25 Master of Fine Art (Course work), RMIT, Melbourne
2020 Advance Diploma of Visual Art, Latrobe College of Art and Design, Melbourne
2017 Bachelor of Fine Art (Theatre Production Design), VCA, University of Melbourne
2013 Diploma of Live Production Theatre and Events, Swinburne, Melbourne
Solo Exhibition
2027 upcoming (October 2027) at Visual Diary, Melbourne
2024 Rúyì, MAILBOX Art Space, Melbourne
Two Person Exhibition
2025 Red paint on concrete floor (with Olly Read), Blindside ARI. Melbourne
Group Exhibition
2026 B- SIDE Fundraising exhibition, Blindside ARI, Melbourne
UMSU Art Prize Exhibition, George Paton Gallery
RMIT Art Crit Club, 11th Augst, RMIT
I’m not a spiritual person, Blindside ARI, Melbourne
LIQUID, 2026.Alta Forma, Melbourne
2025 Snot Real, RMIT MFA Graduate Exhibition, Melbourne
Wind Throb performance, Conduction, Footscray, Melbourne
RMIT DAHOBIT Queer Art Exhibition 2025, RMIT, Melbourne.
2024 Call waiting, Blindside Radio, Melbourne
B- SIDE Fundraising exhibition, Blindside ARI, Melbourne
MELA, Alta Forma, Melbourne
Wall Works, Kyneton Ridge Art Space, Kyneton, Melbourne
RMIT DAHOBIT Queer Art Exhibition 2024, RMIT, Melbourne.
2023 Lèlè 2, Chinese Museum Art Collective, Testing Grounds, Melbourne
Lèlè 1, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
2021 Huaniao Island International Art Festival, Huaniao Island, China
2020 Graduate Exhibition, Latrobe College of Art and Design, Collingwood, Melbourne
Curatorial program
2027 DEBUT 2027, Blindside ARI, Melbourne
2023-26 Run Artist Run, Docklands, Melbourne
- Adrian Jing Song, Kueh Lapis! The Telephone Game
- Elena Betros Lopez, Book Launch Event: Oceanic Feeling
- Meredith Turnbull, Residency Open Studio event
- Ming Liew, Halfway Seen Halfway Home (半窥半归)
- Martina Copley, Studio Residency
- DRM (Daniel R Marks), Residency, closing event and document release
- Melanie Cobham, Residency with Open Studio
- Anita She/She Meihuizi, Residency with Open Studio
- Eamon Sprod, Residency with Open Studio
- Bixiao Zhang, Residency, Open Studio with Artist walk-throught
- Debris Facility PTY LTD, Short residency
- Antonia Pont, ‘The Memory Library’ Book Launch
- Michael Graeve and Dominic Redfern, Immaculate Dust
- Ben Yi-Yu Qin, Xinyuan Li and Ming Liew, AND WORD WAS GOD（神），Melbourne Design Week
- Dell Stewart, Residency with Open Studio
- Annie Wu and Chunxiao Qu, LEARN TO READ FASHION, Melbourne Fashion Festival
- Geoff Robinson, Artist-in-Residence Event Composition for River Objects
- Tributaries Collective, Micro-Sensing event and website Launch Event
- Ming Liew, How Will Remember (2022)
- COLLECTIVE FLOWS, Residency with Exhibition, RMIT Interior Design
Gallery position
2025- Artistic Director, Blindside ARI, Melbourne
Emerging curator mentorship. (Mentoring Ella Simpson)
2023-26 Director, Run Artist Run, Docklands, Melbourne
22-23 Gallery Assistant, Bus Projects, Collingwood, Melbourne
Gallery Internship & volunteer
2023- Volunteer, Blindside ARI, Melbourne
2022 Honorary Internship, Blindside ARI, Melbourne
Volunteer, ACCA, Southbank, Melbourne
Voluntarily Workshop assistant, Paul Yore: Word Made Flesh, ACCA, Southbank, Melbourne
21-23 Volunteer, Bus Projects, Collingwood, Melbourne
Residency& workshop
2026 Reading group with Elizabeth Presa, VCA, University of Melbourne
Deep Tissue Art writing with Lisa Radford & Nicholas Robinson, VCA, University of Melbourne
Driving Creek Pottery Artist Residency, Coromandel, New Zealand
Clay hand-building, Sounding and Listening workshop, ANU, Canberra
2025 绝对空间/Absolute space air Sanho art lab, Taiwan
Wind Throb workshop, Conduction, Footscray, Melbourne
2025 ARIXCHANGE with Sawtooth ARI and Blindside ARI, Australia
Conference
2026 Victorian College of the Arts Graduate Research Conference, Melbourne
2026 NTRO and Asia Symposium 2026, Asian Cultural Research Hub, Melbourne
Artist Talk
2025 Pathways guest Talk, Latrobe College of Art & Design, Melbourne
2025 Artist Talk, 乌有山/Wu you shan, 景德镇/Jing de Zhen, China
2024 Pathways guest Talk, Latrobe College of Art & Design, Melbourne
Teach
2025 Guest tutor, industry presentation, Ceramics elective, Monash University, Melbourne
2023 Guest tutor, first-year workshop, Monash University, Melbourne
Price
2026 2026 UMSU Art Prize Shortlisted, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne
2024 RMIT Nearly-Mary Oliphant Award
Scholarship
2026 Faculty Graduate Researcher Fund, VCA, University of Melbourne
26-27 Research Training Program Scholarship, VCA, University of Melbourne
Press
2026 Ming Liew’s Exhibition Halfway Seen, Halfway Home writing Commission, Photo Access, Canberra
2025 Fine Art, RMIT By Justine Walsh, Memo Review
Lotus and Mud
Theatre and Film
2018 Director Assistant, Yao Yan Theatre Company, Taiwan
2018 Producer & Production Design Assistant, 北京金艺世纪传媒/Beijing Jinyi Theatre Company, China
2017 Costume Designer, Richard III, St Martin’s Theatre
Set Builder, Passage of Flick, 2017
Workshop Assistant, ENESS, Melbourne
Workshop Assistant, Show works, Melbourne
2014 Production Designer, Art Director, Edward’s Paper Plane, 2014