survey_00 — 10 Artists of Contemporary Chinese Art
1. Zeng Fanzhi — 曾梵志 [Zeng Fanzhi], b. 1964, Wuhan
Movement: figurative painting → gestural abstraction.
- “Masks” (面具系列)— men in suits with distorted, grimacing mask-like faces; the central figurative series of the 1990s.
- Graduated from the oil painting department of the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts in Wuhan (1991); lives and works in Beijing.
- Works in oil, combining figurative scenes with gestural abstraction.
Sources: [1]
2. Zhang Xiaogang — 张晓刚 [Zhang Xiaogang], b. 1958, Kunming
Movement: “native realism” / painting of memory. Core of the canon.
- 《血缘:大家庭》 (Bloodline / The Big Family) — portraits based on family photographs of the 1950s–70s: monochrome, soft blur, thin red lines, emblematic faces whose features seem “borrowed” from a single person.
- Graduated from the oil painting faculty of the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts (Chongqing, 1982).
- The Bloodline series, begun in 1993, has developed as an investigation of personal, familial and cultural memory.
Sources: [1]
3. Fang Lijun — 方力钧 [Fang Lijun], b. 1963, Handan
Movement: “cynical realism” (玩世现实主义). One of the four cornerstones of the “contemporary art F4” (当代艺术 F4).
- Bald, grinning heads hovering over water, a crowd or a city — a direct statement of the post-1989 generation.
- Graduated from the printmaking department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (1989); also studied at the Hebei Institute of Light Industry.
Sources: [1]
4. Yue Minjun — 岳敏君 [Yue Minjun], b. 1962, Daqing
Movement: “cynical realism,” sculpture and painting. Also F4.
- “Laughing Men” (大笑男人) — a self-portrait grin multiplied to the point of a mask; the most recognisable image of contemporary China abroad.
- The Tao of Laughter — an exhibition at Harbour City, Hong Kong (2012), including sculptures in urban space.
- A-maze-ing Laughter (Vancouver, 2009) — a public sculpture that became a city landmark.
Sources: [1]
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5. Wang Guangyi — 王广义 [Wang Guangyi], b. 1957, Harbin
Movement: political pop art. F4.
- 《大批判》 (Great Criticism) — red-and-black Cultural Revolution graphics superimposed on Coca-Cola and Gucci logos and on banknotes: the socialist-realist poster as product advertising.
- Graduated from the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou (1984); lives and works in Beijing.
Sources: [1]
6. Cai Guo-Qiang — 蔡国强 [Cai Guo-Qiang], b. 1957, Quanzhou
Movement: gunpowder, pyrotechnics, installation, “explosion events.” The most institutionally recognised among those living in China and New York.
- He works with gunpowder as paint: controlled explosion and unpredictability are both material and metaphor.
- Golden Lion at the 48th Venice Biennale (1999); a three-time participant in the Venice Biennale.
- 《天梯》 (Sky Ladder) — a pyrotechnic ladder to the sky (Huiyu, 2015).
- Studied stage design at the Shanghai Theatre Academy (graduated 1985); lived and worked in Japan from 1986 to 1995.
- Museum level: MoMA (New York), Tate Modern, Guggenheim, Shanghai Art Museum.
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7. Xu Bing — 徐冰 [Xu Bing], b. 1955, Chongqing
Movement: conceptual art about language, writing and translation.
- 《析世鉴—天书》 (A Book from the Sky / Book from the Sky) — hundreds of “characters” that cannot be read: language stripped of meaning as a statement about culture and the power of the text.
- Square Word Calligraphy — Latin words assembled into forms that resemble Chinese characters.
- 凤凰 (Phoenix Project) — two enormous birds made of construction debris; shown at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (New York), in Beijing and in Taiwan.
- Landscript (文字写生) — a series in which landscape is drawn with “text.”
- MacArthur Fellowship; a medal of the US National Endowment for the Arts.
8. Ai Weiwei — 艾未未 [Ai Weiwei], b. 1957, Beijing
Movement: conceptual art, installation, activism, found objects.
- 《一亿颗瓜子》 (Sunflower Seeds, Tate Modern Turbine Hall, 2010) — 100 million handmade porcelain sunflower seeds.
- Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995) — photographic documentation of the act of destroying an ancient vase: a direct metaphor for the treatment of cultural heritage.
- Forever Bicycles (永久自行车) — a welded polygonal structure made of Forever-brand bicycles.
- Represented by Lisson Gallery; a large body of public sculpture in Europe and North America.
9. Liu Xiaodong — 刘小东 [Liu Xiaodong], b. 1963, Jinzhou
Movement: live figurative painting from life, “documentary realism.”
- He paints large cycles on site: 《三峡大移民》 (Three Gorges migrants, 2003), Cuba, Japan, Texas — painting that works like reportage.
- Graduated from the oil painting department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (1988); teaches there.
Sources: [1]
10. Huang Yuxing — 黄宇兴 [Huang Yuxing], b. 1975, Beijing
Movement: neon abstract landscape. Graduated from the mural painting faculty of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (2000).
- Bubbles and Rivers (气泡/河流): fluid fluorescent painting in which, in the artist's words, “fluorescent colour is the colour of our era precisely.”
- He works in acrylic with fluorescent pigments; recurring motifs are bubbles, rivers, dawns, sunsets and “treasures.” Lives and works in Beijing.
Sources: [1]
