Artists › Zheng Guogu › Biography - Exhibitions
Biography of Zheng Guogu
Zheng Guogu was born on 1970 in Yangjiang, Guangdong province, China. He lives and works in Yangjiang, Guangdong province, China. Zheng Guogu is one among a growing number of postmodern artists who have been reacting to the rapid shifts taking place in China over the past ten years by giving artistic shape to the phases of social and economic transformation. What distinguishes him is his commitment to the local culture of his hometown and his role in directing attention to it, while engaging with trends in global contemporary art.
Education
During the years that Zheng Guogu was growing up, things were already changing in China as the Maoist period receded into the past and the country opened up to the rest of the world. He and his generation had access to the West and Hong Kong through television, pirated CVDs of Hollywood films and computer games.
So although he was physically isolated, he was accessing the West, albeit virtually, at a young enough age so as to take these new experiences and freedoms for granted. He attended the Guangdong Academy of Art in Guangzhou, China's third culture capital, with a focus on printmaking.
While a student there, he was introduced to a slightly older group of artists that formed the Big Tail Elephant Group (Lin Yilin, Chen Shaoxiong, Xu Tan and Liang Juhui) in 1991, and they encouraged the younger artist to experiment with performance and conceptual art.
Influences
The international art world has fallen in love with contemporary Chinese art, and somehow Zheng Guogu, although often included in group exhibitions in Asia and Europe, has not been singled out often enough. He juggles fact with fiction or myth, while controlling the entry points to his community for visitors from the art world, who make the trek to visit him in the small town where he lives and works. I went to visit Zheng Guogu in the fall of 2003 on my second research trip to China.
Luckily, Lydia Thompson, a colleague from San Diego, who has a Ph.D. in Chinese art history accompanied me, and since she speaks Mandarin, was pressed into the role of translator. Zheng Guogu came to pick us up from Guangzhou, China's largest city in the south, and brought us to his hometown of Yangjiang, two hours drive away.
Zheng Guogu was born in 1970 in Yangjiang, towards the southwest part of Guangdong province. Known for its knife and scissor factories, it is situated on the edge of the China South Sea. Yangjiang became a town in 1988 when farmers and others from the outlying rural areas were encouraged to move there to participate in a new economic enterprise zone. Zheng Guogu comes from an artistic family. His father is a traditional instrument maker and a singer, who has at times worked for the Hong Kong Opera, a five hour drive east from Yangjiang.
Exhibitions of Zheng Guogu
Solo Exhibitions:
2008
- Factory, Tang Contemporary Art Beijing
2007
- Galerie Barbara Gross, Munich
2006
- Puzzle, Grace Li Gallery, Zurich, Switserland
- Zheng Guogu Exhibition, Shanghai, China
2005
- 'Puzzle' - It is from Yangjiang, Grace Alexander Contemporary Art gallery, Switzerland
- My Home is Your Museum, Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou, Chine
2004
- Zheng Guogu-My Home Is Your Museum, Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou, China (solo)
2003
- Photo works 1997-2000, ShanghART, Shanghai, China
2001
- Zheng Guogu, The compressing world, Yangjiang, Guangdong
2000
- Zheng Guogu, More Dimensional, China Art Archives and Warehouse, Beijing
1998
- Sixteen of the Ten Thousand Customers and other Works, Beijing Photo Gallery, Beijing
Group Exhibitions:
2007
- Documenta 12, Kassel, Germany
- China Welcomes You, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria
2006
- Take Down, Beijing, China
- Through Popular Expression, The University of Central England in Birmingham, UK
- Popular Expression, Het Domein Museum, Sittard, Holland
- Guangzhou - Cantones Artists in the Sigg Collection, Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland
2005
- Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou, China
- Black Extreme Vigorous Figurative, Shenzhen, China
- Out of Sight, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Follow me! Chinese art at the threshold of the new millennium, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
- Living in Interesting Times- A Decade of New Chinese Photography, Israel Museum of Photography Tel Hai, Israel
2004
- Past in Reverse: Contemporary Art of East Asia, San Diego Museum of Art
- The Exhibition of Express Mail Service, Shanghai, China
- ALL UNDER HEAVEN, Ancient and contemporary Chinese art, The Collection of the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, MuHKA (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp) and KMSKA (Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp), Belgium
- A l'ouest du sud de l'est, Center of Contemporary Art, Sète/Villa Arson in Nice, France
- Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video From China, ICP International Center of Photography, New York, USA
2003
- The Fifth System: Public Art in the Age of 'Post - Planning', Overseas Chinese Town, Shenzhen, China
- Fabricated Paradises, Le Parvis Centre of Contemporary Art, France
- Zooming into Focus - Chinese Contemporary Photography from the Haudenschild Collection, San Diego State University & San Diego Museum of Art, USA
- 50th Biennale di Venezia, (Canton Express), Venezia, Italy
2002
- Fan Mingzhen & Fan Mingzhu (Twin exhibition) - Glad to meet, Jin Sha Jiang Rd., Shanghai
- Urban Creation, 4th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai
- Paris-Pekin, Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris
- Too Much Flavour, 3H Art Center, Shanghai, China
- Asianvible:Asian Contemporary Art Espai D'Art Contemporani de Castello
- To See The Calligraphy or to Measure the Blood Pressure, Yang Jiang
- Are you going to enjoy calligraphy or measure blood pressure?
- "2002 In Shanghai, Yangjiang some event occurring." ShanghART, Shanghai
- 4th Kwangju Biennial, South Korea
- Asianvibe, Arte Contemporaneo Asiatico, Valencia, Spain
2001
- Hot Pot, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway
- Photo Festival, Naarden, Holland
- City Slang, He Kiang Ming Art Museum, Sense
- Chinese Photography Show, Passage de Ritz, Paris, France
- Cross Pressures, Lulu Art Museum; Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland
- Hingham New Medium Art Festival, China Fine Art Academy, Hingham
- Living in time - 29 Contemporary Artists from China, Hamburger Banjo, Berlin, Germany
- Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany
- Art Forum, Berlin, Germany
2000
- clash! 100 artists, Canvas International Art, Amsterdam, Holland
- Individual and Society in Art - A Collection of Works of Art By Eleven Chinese Artists, Guangdong Museum of Art
- Cities of the 21st Century: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany
- The Sun Rises in the East - the current artistic scene in Asia. Rencontres internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France
- Post Material - Interpretations of Everyday Life by Contemporary Chinese Artists, Red Gate Watch Tower, Beijing
- Fuck Off, Shanghai
- Portraits, Figures, Couples and Groups from the Mcaf Foundation, BizArt, Shanghai
1999
- Post-Sense Sensibility Alien Bodies & Delusion, Basement third ring road, Beijing
- Innovations Part I, China Art Archives and Warehouse, Beijing
- Changing Views, Kunsthal Hof 88, Almelo, Holland
- Art For Sale, Shanghai
- International Photography Biennale, Centre de la Imagen, Mexico city, Mexico
- The Other X/Change, Galerie Objektiv und Edition, Cologne, Germany
- Concepts, Colors and Passions, China Art Archives and Warehouse, Beijing
- Unveiled Reality - Contemporary Photography Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok; Art Beatus Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
- Towards materialism and that sort of beauty, Shanghai; Beijing; Nanjing; Chonking
- Intimate Moments, Hanart Gallery, Hong Kong
- Hsin: a visible spirit - Contemporary Photography from the People's Republic of China, Cypress College Photography Galleries; BC Space Gallery, USA
- Cities on the Move 4, Hayward Gallery, London
- Love: Chinese Contemporary Photography & Video International Arts Festival, Tachikawa, Japan
- Cities on the Move 5, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
- Modern Chinese Art Foundation, Caermerklooster, Gent, Belgium
1998
- Biennale de l'image, Paris 98, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, France
- Site art project, Walking Museum in Takashimaya, Tokyo, Japan
- Cities on the Move 2, CAPC Musee, Bordeaux, France
- Taipei Biennal, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
- Confused... Kunst Rai 98, Art Amsterdam, Holland
- Photography as Concept - 4. Internationale Foto-Triennale, Esslingen, Germany
- Guarene Arte, Turin, Italy
- The Corruptionists, Basement, third ring road, Beijing
- Cities on the Move 3, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA
- Images Telling Stories, Shanghai
1997
- Contemporary Photo Art from P. R. China, Neue Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin Staedtische
- Kunstsammlungen, Chemnitz Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Germany
- Cities on the Move 2, Secession, Vienna, Austria
1996
- Possibility - Installation exhibition with the Big Tail Elephant Group, Guangzhou
1994
- The Third Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Art, Documentation Library of East China Normal University, Shanghai
- Hanmo New Art Special Show, Guangzhou
- No Room - Installation exhibition with the Big Tail Elephant Group No.14 Sanyu Rd, Guangzhou
