| 1960 | Born in Changzhou, Jiangsu Providence, China |
| 1987 | Graduated from Nanjing Academy of Arts |
| 1993 | Studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts |
| Currently | Lives and works in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, China |
| 2015 | Grain to Pixel, Shanghai Center of Photography, Shanghai, China |
| 2014 | To Be or Not To Be, Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, Nanjing, China |
| 2012 | Mi Lou: Recent Works by Hong Lei, Chambers Fine Art, Beijing, China |
| 2009 | Seasons: Recent Works by Hong Lei, Chambers Fine Art, New York, USA |
| 2008 | Seasons: Recent Works by Hong Lei, Chambers Fine Art, Beijing, China |
| 2007 | Seven Worthies, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China |
| 2006 | Lost: New Works by Hong Lei, Aura Gallery, Shanghai Still-Life: Photograph by Hong Lei, Chambers Fine Art, New York Ain’t Here: Photograph by Hong Lei, Zhu Qizhan Art Museum, Shanghai Last Night in My Dream: Hong Lei’s Photographic Works, JianSongGe Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan |
| 2003 | Hong Lei's Narrative, Chambers Fine Art, New York, USA |
| 2002 | Chinese Texture of the Soul, China Art Archives & Warehouse, Beijing & The Room with a View Gallery, Shanghai, China |
| 1993 | Metaphysical Poetry, Cifa Gallery, Beijing, China Photography Naarden, Netherlands |
| 2019 | Chambers Review II, Chambers Fine Art, New York, USA Needlepoint, Chambers Fine Art, New York, USA |
| 2018 | 40x40: From 1987 To 2018 - Art History Shaped By 40 Artists, Powerlong Museum, Shanghai, China 40 Years of Chinese Contemporary Photography, OCAT Shenzhen, Shen Zhen, China |
| 2017 | Anren Birnnale, Chengdu, China Crossing: AMNUA 5th anniversary exhibition, Nanjing, China |
| 2016 | What You Do Not Desire - Photography Exhibition, OFOTO Gallery, Shanghai, China Present Participle III，M Art Center, Shanghai China |
| 2015 | Immortal Present: Art and East Asia, Berkshire Museum, Massachusetts, USA |
| 2011 | Wu Ming: Forms is Formless, Contrasts Gallery, Shanghai, China Community of Tastes: Chinese Contemporary Art since 2000, Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil |
| 2010 | Comunidad de gusto. Arte contemporáneo chino desde el 2000, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile Summer Group Exhibition, Aura Gallery, Beijing, China Mind Space: Maximalism in Contrasts, Contrasts Gallery, Shanghai, China Still Life: Chinese Contemporary Photography 2009 Europalia China Photography Exhibition, Three Shadows Photography Centre, Beijing, China |
| 2009 | Wang Tiande, Hong Lei & Gao Yuan, Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA, USA Stairway to Heaven: From Chinese Streets to Monuments and Skyscrapers, H&R Block Artspace at Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, USA |
| 2008 | La Escuela Yi: Trenta Años de Arte Abstracto Chino, CaixaForum, Madrid, Spain Exquisite Corps: China Surreal, m97 Gallery, Shanghai, China 2D and 3D: Negotiating Visual Languages, PKM Gallery, Beijing, China Stairway to Heaven, Bates College Museum of Arts, Lewiston, ME, USA Another Lonely Planet Revisited, Chambers Fine Art, Beijing, China FotoFest 2008, FotoFest Biennial, Houston, TX, USA Zhù Yi! China actual photography, Institut de Cultura de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain New Photo-Ten years, Carolina Nitsch, New York, USA 55 Days in Valencia: Chinese Art Meeting, IVAM, Valencia, Spain Artists in Art History, SZ Art Center, Beijing, China |
| 2007 | Net: Re-imaginging Space, Time and Culture, Chambers Fine Art, Beijing, China |
| 2006 | The 6th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea |
| 2005 | Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland Dreaming of the Dragon’s Nation: Contemporary Art Exhibition from China, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland Always to the Front: Chinese Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan Living in Interesting Times: A Decade of New Chinese Photography, The Open Museums of Photography, Tel-Hai Industrial Park, Tel-Hai, Israel Pele de cidade: imagens da metropole contemporanea, Macao, China |
| 2004 | Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video From China, International Center of Photography, New York, Seattle Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, USA Intersection: Contemporary Oil Painting & Photography, Chambers Fine Art, New York, USA; Spellbound Aura, MOCA Taipei, Taiwan |
| 2003 | Alors, la Chine?, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France Made By Chinese, Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris, France A Strange Heaven, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic Arles International Photography Festival, Arles, France |
| 2002 | Future of the New Asia, Kuanhoon Gallery, Seoul, South Korea Pingyao Photography Festival, Shaanxi, China Beautiful and Tragic, The Room With a View, Shanghai, China Too Much Flavor, 3H Art Center, Shanghai, China |
| 2001 | Disorientation: Photography and Video in China Today, Chambers Fine Art, New York, USA Wall To Wall: China-Naarden Photography Festival, Naarden, Netherlands From Inside the Body, ISE Foundation, New York, USA Cross Pressures: Contemporary Photography and Video from Beijing, Oulu Art Museum, the Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland Inauguration Exhibition of the New Gallery, China Art Archives & Warehouse, Beijing, China Photo Festival Naarden, Naarden, Holland Art Forum Berlin, Berlin, Germany |
| 2000 | The Sun Rises in the East, Recontres Internationale de la Photography, Arles, France From Inside the Body: Chinese New Photography and Video, ISE Cultural Foundation, New York, USA |
| 1999 | Love: Chinese Contemporary Photography and Video, 1999 International Art Festival, Tachikawa, Japan Modern Chinese Art Foundation Inaugural Exhibition, Ghent, Belgium Innovations Part 1, China Art Archives and Warehouse, Beijing, China |
| 1998 | Images Telling Stories, Shanghai, China |
| 1997 | New Image: Conceptual Photography, Beijing, China |
| 1992 | Guangzhou Biennale: Art in the 1990s, Guangzhou, China |
| Asia Society Museum, New York, USA |
| Fidelity Investments Art Collection, USA |
| French Ministry of Culture, Paris, France |
| Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China |
| Heiner Wemhöner Collection, Herford, Germany |
| International Center of Photography, New York, USA |
| Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA |
| Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, North Carolina, USA |
| Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China |
| Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, USA |
| Today Art Museum, Beijing, China |
| United States Embassy, Guangzhou, China |
| White Rabbit Collection, Sydney, Australia |