Wu Yiqiang
Born in 1970 in Yunnan (southwest China), Wu Yiqiang took part in the student hunger strike in 1989 in protest…
Exhibitions Gallery loft
Biography
Born in 1970 in Yunnan (southwest China), Wu Yiqiang took part in the student hunger strike in 1989 in protest at the events in Tiananmen Square. He will be, that year, the only student from Yunnan to be sanctioned by being expelled from the Yunnan Institute of Arts where he was training. He then abandoned his artistic practice and worked for the State before becoming a publisher of fine arts magazines and then a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. It was not until 2005 that he chose to resume his artistic activities. In 2007, he launched a creative project that led him to travel to Tibet and then to Beijing where he decided to settle.
Wu has been interested in the newspaper for a long time. He considers it as a ready-made material whose specific properties give him more space to create than a simple canvas. The figures he draws are directly inherited from his first paintings because he likes to oppose the slightly naive softness of their features to the harsh reality of current events. By using various materials and techniques for the creation of his works, he explores the questions of destruction and reconstruction, both visual (recycling of papers, composition of figures in relation to texts, etc.) and intellectual, in particular by denouncing the press and media violence.
His works, exhibited in China since 1994, have aroused great interest on the international art scene since 2007. Exhibited in Norway, Sweden, Italy, Korea and France, he has been selected by the Artist Pension Trust of New York in 2013.
Wu Yiqiang currently lives and works between Kunming and Beijing.
Career
EXPOSITIONS PERSONNELLES (sélection)
2012
Deafening Din of Voices, Art Experience Gallery, Hong Kong, China
2011
Battle of Will, Siemens Home Appliances, Beijing, China
Extra : Reading WU Yiqiang through newspaper, 4 Face Space Gallery, Beijing, China
2008
Wu Yiqiang, Solo Oil Painting, Shanghai, China
EXPOSITIONS DE GROUPE
2014
Art Up, Contemporary Art Fair, Lille, France
2013
Urban Anecdotes, Art Experience Gallery, Hong Kong, China
Asia Hotel Art Fair 2013, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Hong Kong, China
Papernews Group Exhibition, Lian Art Center, Hunan, China
New Art Fair, Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris, France
2012
Spiritual Orientation, Hong Kong Contemporary Art Museum, Beijing, China
Cold Encounter, 798 Soka Art, Beijing, China
On Paper Supreme, Jiuceng Art Museum, Beijing, China
Modern Expression, Modern and Contemporary Oil Painting of Yunnan, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
Harmony but not sameness – 14+14 Contemporary Art Exhibition, Beijing, ChinaSilence of the heart, Shanghai Asia Gallery, Shanghai, China
Level – International Art Exhibition, Shanghai Hilton Hotel, Shanghai, China
Lille Art Fair, Contemporary Art Fair, Lille, France
St-Art, Contemporary Art Fair, Strasbourg, France
Culture, Desert – Kubuqi Contemporary Art Exhibition, Kubuqi Contemporary Art Museum, Kubuqi, China
2011
The 3rd International Contemporary Art Gwanju Art Vision Exhibition, Gwanju, China
Mountains Beyond Mountains, Yue Museum, 798 Art Communality, Beijing, China
Oriental Light – Korea, Japan, China Contemporary Art, Huangshan, China
New Coordinates of History – Songzhuang, Shang Shang International Art Museum, Beijing, China
Gwanju Museum of Art, Beijing Residency Studio International Exhibition (Korea, China, Germany), Korean Cultural Center, Beijing, China
New Wave of Chinese Contemporary Art, Mundie Maurier, France
Black and White Realism n°2, Museum of Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
Gwanju Museum of Art – 3rd Beijing Residency Artists Open Studio Exhibition, Beijing, China
Lille Art Fair, Contemporary Art Fair, Lille, France
St-art, Contemporary Art Fair, Strasbourg, France
Chantal et Patrick Pons, Chinese Contemporary Art, Lyon, France
2010
Long Long Tower, Yuan Xiaocen Art Museum, Kunming, China
Overcoming Cultural Horizon, Shang Shang International Art Museum, Beijing, China
Shape History – China Youth Art Exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2009
Mingle – Contemporary Art Exhibition, Qing He Art Museum, Nanjing, China
The First Chongqing Young Artists Biennale, Chongqing, China
Experimental Contemporary, Modern Art Museum, Beijing, China
2008
The First Southwest Power, Contemporary Art Touring Exhibition, Shanghai/Shenzhen/Chengdu, China
Bejing 2008, Summer Olympic Games of China, Joint Exhibition, Beijing, China
Right Eco-Art in Beijing, London, Britain
Chinese Contemporary Art, Gwanju Biennale, LINE Gallery, Korea
Asia International Contemporary Art Fair, Hong Kong, China
Chinese Contemporary Art Identity and Transformation, Kalmar Castle, Sweden
Bologna Art Expo, Bologna, Italy
Chinese Situation, Contemporary Art Exhibition, Beijing, China
2007
Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair of Young Artists Exhibition, Shanghai, China
Chinese Contemporary Art Identity and Transformation, TCG Nordica/Uddvala Bohuslans, Sweden
Transparency of the Board, Tibet, Everest
The Marching Kunming, Sensation Art Space, Chongqing, China
Sweet & Sour, Contemporary Art Exhibition, Dong Xi Gallery, Norway
The 3rd Guiyang Biennale, Guiyang Fine Art Museum, Guizhou, China
Content My Heart, Contemporary Art Exhibition, 897 Space, Songzhuang, Beijing
2006
TuTu Art 2006, Yunnan University Fine Art Museum, Yunnan, China
Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, Shanghai, China
WO/OW, Hamme, Belgium
East/West, Brussels University Art Museum, Belgium
Contagious Love – HID/AIDS Project, TCG Nordica, Kunming, China
The first « New Power China » Biennal, Shanghai Yuan Gong Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Friends, TCG Nordica, Kunming, China
2005
The True Character’s Hard to Alter, Shenzhen, China
Guangzhou Triennal – The Show, Guangzhou, China
Lost and Reborn, Paper Artwork Exhibition, 598 Underground Art Space, China
2004
Chinese-Korean Modern Art Exhibition, Chongqing Tank Art Center, Chongqing, China
Grand Military Review, Yunnan National Museum, Yunnan, China
Present, TCG Nordica, Kunming, China
Self-Justifying, Peripheral Exhibition of Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China
2003
Wall Paper, Kunming Loft, Kunming, China
2002
Experience Kunming, Kunming Loft, Kunming, China
1998
Yunnan Oil Painting Exhibition, Yunnan Art Gallery, Yunnan, china
1997
Yunnan Provincial Oil Paintings Exhibition, Yunnan Provincial Museum, Yunnan, China
1996
Individualism, Yunnan Art Gallery, Yunnan, China
1994
A Propellant Exhibition, Yunnan Arts Institute, Yunnan, China