Yuan Gong Explained

Yuan Gong (born 1961 in Shanghai), is a Chinese contemporary artist. He has obtained a PhD degree in theory of art at the Chinese National Academy of Arts in 2012, but has immersed himself in different aspects of Chinese contemporary art since the 1990s. Being both creator and researcher, designer and planner, Yuan is a multiple facets artist playing at the interface of conceptual art, performance and fine arts. Using a large variety of media, his artworks address many philosophical questions, reflecting his concerns about the Chinese society and impugning the art system, the exhibition format and the status of the artwork.

Life and works

Yuan graduated from the Shanghai Printing Technical School with a specialization in artistic platemaking. He started his career as a designer before pursuing it as an artist. He held his first solo exhibition at the Hong Kong Arts Centre in 1997 and has participated in more than 20 group exhibitions around the world.

He has hold solo exhibitions in main art spaces in China such as the Guangdong Museum of Art (Guangzhou), the Tianrenheyi Art Center (Hangzhou),[1] the Zendai Contemporary Art Space (Shanghai), Bund18 Ailing Foundation (Shanghai).

Major exhibitions in which he has participated in recent years include the Collateral event "Voice of the Unseen" of the 55th Venice Biennale, the thematic exhibition at the China Pavilion of the 54th Venice Biennale,[2] [3] the Copenhagen Art Festival, the 6th Prague Contemporary Art Festival, the inaugural Beijing 798 Biennale, the 4th China Songzhuang Culture and Art Festival and the 4th Chengdu Biennale.

Within the "3+X" exhibition pattern, promoted by Shaheen Merali,[4] Jin Weihong, Ai Weiwei and Shen Qibin, Yuan has exhibited with artists such as Jin Feng, Qiu Zhijie, Xu Zhen, Zuoxiao Zuzhou, Xi Jianjun, the Gao Brothers and Zhao Zhao. Within these exhibitions the artists present their work in different spaces, emphasizing the independence of the creation process, of the artworks and of the artists themselves.In 2006 he launched the New Power China Biennale as a curator in order to promote young emerging Chinese artists. In 2007, he initiated the Tibet series Art Project "Transparent Scene" and organized artist residencies in Tibet for several months. After the 2008 Tibetan unrest (also known as"3.14 riots") he created China Size, an installation-performance using a 3.14 scale, shown at the 4th Songzhuang Art Festival.

The same year, following the Sichuan earthquake, he was volunteered researcher for one year in the disaster area, from which he produced some of his most iconic and controversial artworks, Sounding off 5.12 with Dong Feng and Red Curtains 5.12. During this year, he conducted a survey gathering local testimonies. The testimonies produced photographs, videos, and installations made using materials collected from the disaster area.[5] [6]

In May 2009, after his stay at the Department of Archaeology of Peking University, he was involved as an artist in the archaeological excavation of Duke of Zhou temple in Shaanxi province. Allegedly breaking rules of conventional thinking, he collected the soil dug from the excavations and launched the Duke of Zhou Soil Collection Plan. Since 2011 and his artwork the Scented Air 6000 m3 presented at the China Pavilion of the 54th Venice Biennale,[7] Yuan uses fog media to pervade the exhibition space or to interfere with people.[8] [9] In his new productions, he has developed a variety of devices and different mechanisms to produce fog, invading public spaces and disrupting the established order (The Stroll, 2012; Air Strikes around the world, 2013).

In 2007, Yuan was awarded the Culture China Person of the Year Award. He received the ICS City Beat EDGE Artist of the Year Award in 2009. The same year, his work Sounding off 5.12 with Dong Feng was included in the book "60 Years of New China Art Interview 1949-2009", edited by the Chinese art theorist Shao Dazhen.[10] His artworks have been collected by the Guangdong Museum of Art, the Hubei Museum of Art, the Arthur Sackler Museum of Peking University, and are part of the Sigg's collection of Chinese contemporary art.

Exhibitions

2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2000
1997

External links

Notes and References

  1. Pi Daojian, How History Moves Towards Current Time, in Catalogue, Reproduction-Renascence, Tian Ren He Yi Art Ltd, Chinese/ English, Hangzhou, China, 2013.
  2. Catalogue, Chinese Pavilion 54th Venice Biennial Yuan Gong's work SCENE, Ed. Arts Tracking Publishing Center, Editor Maoming Rong, (Chinese/ English), Beijing, China, 2011.
  3. Catalogue, The Scented air 6000 m3 - Much more than 6000 m3, Research Center for Aesthetics and Aesthetic Education at Peking University (Chinese/ English), Beijing, China, 2011.
  4. Shaheen Merali, Shifts in the imaginary: tracing initiatives by the 3+1 Group, in Catalogue, People and things around contemporary art, Research Center for Aesthetics and Aesthetic Education at Peking University, Chinese/ English, Beijing, China, 2011.
  5. Catalogue, Process - Memoir of Yuan Gong, Ed. Chinese Arts and Humanities Press, Ma Cheng & Hu Yan (Chinese/ English), Hong Kong, China, 2010.
  6. Catalogue, People and things around contemporary art, Research Center for Aesthetics and Aesthetic Education at Peking University, Chinese/ English, Beijing, China, 2011.
  7. Peng Feng, In-Between Existence, published in La Biennale di Venezia: Biennale Arte 2011: ILLUMInations, Ed. Bice Curiger & Giovanni Carmine, published by Marsilio Editori (Venice - Italy), 2011, 604 p.
  8. Wang Lin, The Importance of the Site-On Yuan Gong’s More than 6000m³, artintern.net, July 2011.
  9. Harvey Dzodin, ‘Pervasion’ Invasion, Global Times, June 2011.
  10. 60 Years of New China Art Interview 1949-2009, Ed. Shao Da Zhen, China, 2009.

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