Wang Guangyi Biography
Wang Guangyi (1957 - ) was born in 1957 in Harbin, China and studied painting at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts. He currently lives and works in Beijing, China. Wang Guangyi is known as one of the leaders of the New Art Movement born in China after 1989 and is one of the central figures of the Political Pop movement. Best known for his Great Criticism series, Wang makes connections between the propagandistic aesthetics of the Cultural Revolution and the extraordinary images of American pop. Juxtaposing revolutionary images with consumer logos, Wang's canvases highlight the conflict between China's political past and commercialized present. Wang Guangyi's work has been exhibited worldwide in galleries and museums and is part of important private and public collections such as the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany; the Museum of Modern Art of San Francisco, USA; the Essel Museum, Kloserneuburg, Austria; the Today Art Museum, Beijing, China and the Berardo Museum in Lisbon, Portugal. Recent exhibitions include Contemporary Chaos, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Vestfossen, Norway (2018); Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA (2017), Thing-in-itself: Utopia, Pop and Personal Theology – Wang Guangyi Retrospective Exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China (2012); Wang Guangyi. The interactive mirror image, Tank Loft. Chongqing Contemporary Art Center, Chongqing, China (2011); Visual Politics, solo exhibition by Wang Guangyi, He Xiangning Art Museum, Guangdong, China (2008); Cold War Aesthetics, Wang Guangyi, Institute of Louise Blouin Foundation, London, UK (2008).
