1981年生于中国安徽 ，2004年毕业于中央美术学院油画系第三画室，现工作生活于北京。
夏禹的坦培拉创作技法与形式的探索并存，那些记忆里的父母爱情，姐弟情深，亲密关系与青年愁滋味，在近年的创作中逐渐蜕变成现在进行时的都市生活图鉴，丰富而熟悉的生活场景让人代入感十足。画中人不断游走在居所与公司，城市与自然之间，在家务与工作，发呆与娱乐当中无缝衔接，在一次次生活空间的转场间歇切换不同的身份与角色。现代人的选择看似多样，却似乎再难拥有古人的避世之所和一片精神的自留地。生活从未变得如此的富足而有限，标准而疲惫。新的时代催促着每个个体将自己训练为时间管理大师，成为消费主义框架之下“Work hard, Play hard”的生活哲学家。夏禹的绘画恰恰展现了标准生活的破绽，正视生活中总会出现的无聊瞬间，却也自有平凡真实的可爱之处。
Born in Anhui, China in 1981, graduated from the Third Studio of the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2004, and currently works and lives in Beijing.
What Xia Yu portrays is merely a glance of contemporary urban life, not comprehensive but representational enough. The figures in his work are perpetually roaming between their residence and work, city and nature, and seamlessly shifting among chores and tasks, daydream and recreation, switching between various identities and roles in the interval of one living space after another. There seem to be diverse choices offered to the contemporary lifestyle, but it appears that it is no longer possible to own a place of refuge or a spiritual escape like ancient literati. Life has never been so vibrant and limited, common and exhausting. The new era urges every individual to be trained as a master of time management and become a philosopher of life under the framework of consumerism with the slogan of “Work hard, play hard.” Xia Yu’s paintings precisely expose the defects of a typical life, confronting the dull moments that continually appear, which can be lovely in their unpretentious truthfulness.
