Tiger, 2014, Stickers on canvas, 12 x 8 in
Stickers are everywhere. On water bottles, laptops, notebooks, car bumpers—cheap, cheerful, and easy to ignore. But in the hands of Ye Hongxing, they become something else entirely: dense, intricate worlds that compress the noise of contemporary life into tightly packed surfaces.
Hongxing started working with stickers in 2009, collecting them from Chinese street markets and, later, from places like Michaels and Hobby Lobby while in the U.S. These weren’t chosen for prestige—they were chosen because they were everywhere. Pop icons, cartoon bunnies, glitter bombs, military symbols, fragments of innocence and violence jumbled together. Each piece begins with the everyday, but ends somewhere dreamlike. Since then, she has used stickers to explore Eastern and Western themes of consumerism, pop culture, and humanity’s relationship to the natural world
In Red Boat, one of her most arresting works, all these elements collide: people, animals, war machines, advertisements, mythological references. It’s a portrait of 2022 in China—but more than that, it’s a snapshot of any society overwhelmed by spectacle. The surface feels celebratory, almost joyful, but stay with it and the weight starts to settle in. It’s beautiful. And uneasy.
Dream World No. 24, 2014, Crystal sticker collage on canvas, 120 x 160 cm
When she first came to California, we hoped to apply for UCSD funding, but there was a challenge: Ye didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Mandarin. At the time, it wasn’t clear how much we’d be able to communicate. And the truth is, we struggled. Still, something clicked. She was wonderful; generous, open, and fearless in her work and presence. Even with limited language in common, there was a shared understanding—built through art, mutual trust, and persistence.
Her peacock works, like Peacock 12, take the same overload strategy and apply it to a symbol of elegance. But look closer: the feathers are built from consumer junk, toy eyes, warning signs. What looks like beauty is layered with threat. Protective Color does the same with animal forms—tigers, birds, snakes—pieced together from scraps that shouldn’t belong, but somehow do.
Hongxing’s work never preaches. It builds tension through material. The closer you get, the more it pushes back. As she puts it, “The fragmented composition of stickers reinforces the virtual and disjointed characteristics of my pieces.” That disjointedness isn’t just a visual effect—it’s a reflection of how it feels to be alive now, surrounded by images, stories, brands, and noise, all at once.
What makes her work linger isn’t just its visual density, but its emotional layering. It’s playful, yes—but it’s also dead serious. It captures how culture filters into our bodies, how beauty can feel violent, how attention itself becomes political. And it does all this with the most disposable materials imaginable.
That kind of transformation—the ability to take what’s overlooked and make it speak—isn’t just clever. It’s necessary.
Ye Hongxing, Red Boat, 2022, Mixed media on Canvas, 79 x 118 in
Ye Hongxing, Substitution No. 3, 2021, Mixed media on Canvas, 63 x 47 in
Ye Hongxing, Studio visit
Ye Hongxing
Born- 1972, Guangxi, China Lives and Works- San Diego, CA Education- Graduated from Art Department of Educational Academy in Guilin, Guangxi; Graduated from Printing Department, Central Fine Art Academy, Beijing. Exhibitions (selected): 2017 - Prajñāpāramitā Ye Hongxing - Solo ExhibitionThe opposite houseBeijing; 2015 - The Dazzling World Of Ye HongxingArtLexingMiami; 2014 - The Fantasy Factory Ye Hongxing - Solo ExhibitionArt＋ShanghaiShanghai; 2014 - Ye Hongxing - Solo ExhibitionZee Stone GalleryHongKong; 2013 - East of Eden, Ye Hongxing Solo ExhibitionScreamLondon