GU Wenda

谷文達

works in New York and Shanghai (b. 1955, Shanghai)

GU Wenda The Trailblazer of Experimental Ink Art

Hanart TZ Gallery’s association with the groundbreaking experimental ink artist GU Wenda began almost three decades ago. In 1992, Hanart presented “Desire for Words”, a specially curated two-man show featuring GU Wenda and XU Bing. Held at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, this exhibition marked the first time the two artists showed together in Hong Kong. After more than two decades, just as ink art is becoming an increasing point of focus in the art market, Hanart TZ Gallery is proud to present a special series of three solo exhibitions by GU Wenda. All opening in May 2014, the exhibitions will be held in three venues: at the Hanart TZ Gallery space in the Pedder Building, at the gallery’s booth at Art Basel Hong Kong (ABHK), and as part of Art Basel Hong Kong’s “Encounter”, a special showcase in the public area of the fair. These exhibitions feature GU Wenda’s most recent works as well as his most important signature series: Alchemy, Mythos of Lost Dynasties (showing at Hanart TZ Gallery, Pedder Building); United Nations (showing at ABHK Encounter), and Forest of Stone Steles- Retranslation and Rewriting of Tang Poetry (showing at Hanart gallery booth, ABHK). Through these shows, viewers will have a rare opportunity to encounter a cross-section of GU’s conceptually powerful works, and appreciate how the artist’s inventive modes including installations made of human hair, mistranslations of Tang poems, “genetic ink” and “tea paper” paintings, are continuously overturning the received notions of “experimental ink” and, what is more, challenging the existing misconceptions of “ink art” in the current market.

In the 1980’s, GU Wenda was already one of Mainland China’s most widely known contemporary artists, and one of the leading figures of China’s experimental ink movement. During that period, ink painting was seen as both a legacy and as an ‘umbilical cord of history’ connecting the fractured present with the Chinese cultural past. GU’s strong foundation and immense talent in traditional ink painting and calligraphy made his iconoclastic experiments of the time even more powerful evocative.

1955	Born in Shanghai, China
1976	Shanghai School of Arts and Crafts, china
1981	M.F.A., China Academy of Art, China
Lives in New York City & works in New York City, USA & Shanghai, Beijing, china

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2014	Gu Wenda, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong; Hanart TZ Gallery at Art Basel HK 2014, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
2013	CHAMBERS FINE ART, New York, USA
2010	Shanghai Pujiang Overseas Chinese Town 10 year Public Art Project (China park)：a Unique Chinese Ecological Utopia, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal Pujiang Exhibition Zone (Sino-Italian Center), Shanghai ,China
	Ink Alchemy: Gu Wenda Experimental Ink Exhibition, He Xiangning Art Museum – OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen, China
	The Whole Thing Comes Go Light: Gu Wenda Early Ink Painting Exhibition, Yan-huang Art Museum, Beijing, China
2009	“Eavenly Lantern: Tea Palace” – an Ongoing Global Landart Project for Europalia Festival, Brussels, Belgium
2008	Heavenly Lantern New Year Celebration, Zhengda Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China
2007	Herbert Johnson Art Museum, Cornell University, USA
	Hood Museum of Art and Baker Library, Dartmouth College, USA
2006	Wenda Gu, Art Gallery of Wayne State University, Detroit, USA
	Hair Dialogue, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
2005	Forest of Stone Steles – Retranslation & Rewriting Tang Poetry, Contemporary Art Center, He Xianging Museum of Art, Shenzhen, china
	Wenda Gu’s United Nations Project, Art Gallery of Tufts University, USA
2003	Wenda Gu: from middle kingdom to biological millennium, University of North Texas, USA
2001	Intersections & Translations: New Installations by Wenda Gu, The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia(Touring exhibition in NGA Asian Art Galleries, Oct 2001 to April 2002)
	Ink Alchemy #1, Enrico Navarra Gallery, Paris, France
2000	United Nations – Great Wall of the Millennium, Art Center, New York State University, Buffalo, USA
	Translation & Rewriting of TangPpoem #2 – a world wedding series with Australian bride, a Solo art performance, Utsunomiya Museum of Art, Japan
1999	United Nations-Babel of the millennium, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA
1998	United Nations-Vancouver Monument: The Metamorphosis, – a site-specific installation, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
1997	United Nations-Hong Kong Monument: The Historical Clash, made for Hong Kong Handover 1997, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong
1996	United Nations-USA Monument #2: Dreamerica, Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, New York, USA
	The Mythos of Lost Dynasties, Binet Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
1995	The Enigma of Blood, In Khan Gallery, New York, USA
	United Nations-USA Monument 1: Post-cmoellotniinaglpiostm, Space Untitled Gallery, New York, USA
1994	Enigma Beyond Joy & Sin, Main Gallery, University of Rhode Island, USA
	United Nations-Italy Monument: God & Children, Enrica Gariboldi Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy
1993	The Mythos of Lost Dynasties, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong
1990	Two Thousand National Deaths, Hatley Martin Gallery, San Francisco, USA
	RedBlackWhite Desert, University Art Museum, California State University, USA; Long Beach & Los Angeles Festival 1990
1987	University Art Gallery, York University, Toronto, Canada
1986	Artist Gallery, Xi’an, China

Selected Group Exhibitions

2015	Magical Mountains: Hanart TZ Gallery at Art Basel HK 2015, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
2013	85 and an Art Academy, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
	30 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China
	Re ink: Invitation Exhibition of Contemporary Ink and Wash Painting, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
	The Origin of Dao: New Dimensions in Chinese Contemporary Art, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
2012	Ctrl+N, Gwangju Museum of Art, Korea
	New Chinese Art, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
	Re Ink: 2000-2010 Invitation Exhibition of Contemporary Ink and Wash Painting, Hubei Museum of Art, China
	Taste of the East, How Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2011	Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu Exhibition Center, Chengdu, China
	Sculpture Exhibition – Netherlands, Netherlands
2009	Martell Annual Award Exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
	Ink not Ink – Chinese Contemporary Ink Art, Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA
2008	Uli Ssig Collection, Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, USA
	Art from Cultural Revolution, Asia Society & Museum, New York, USA
2007	10th Year Anniversary Celebration, Guangdong Art Museum, Guangzhou, China
	Shenzhen International Sculpture, He Xiangning Art Museum – OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen, China
2006	30 Years of Contemporary Ink Painting, Nanjing Art Museum, China; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
	20th Century Chinese Painting Exhibition, Shanghai Art Museum, China
2005	Majiang: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg collection, Kunst Museum, Bern, Switzerland
	Calligraphy – non – Calligraphy, China Academy of Arts, Hangzhou, China
2004	Celebrating 20th Anniversary of Hanart T Z Gallery, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong
	Ink Painting Collection of Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
	4th Shenzhen International Ink Painting Biennale, Shenzhen Museum of Art, China
2003	United Nations World Heritage, Macau Tower, Macau
2002	United Nation: Man & Space, Esplanade-eheatres on the Bay, Singapore
	New Way of Tea, Asia Society and Museum, New York, USA
	The Babel Tower, National Gallery of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
	The 1st Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
2001	China: 20 Years of Ink Experiment, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
	Re: Duchamp – 49th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
	3rd Bienal Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
	2nd Biennale of Asian Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Genova, Italy
	1st Chengdu Biennial, Chengdu, China
2000	Conceptualist Art: Points of Origin 1950s-1980s, Miami Art Museum, Florida, USA
	Contemporary Art Collection of Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
	Sharing Exoticisms, 5th Lyon Biennale, Lyon, France
1998	The 1st Shenzhen Ink Painting Biennale, Guanshanyui Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
	Inside Out, New Chinese Art, Asia Society Galleries, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA
	The 2nd Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
1997	Second Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa
	Auto-portrait: The Power of Calligraphy, Exit Art, New York, USA
1996	Twentieth Century Chinese Painting-tradition & Innovation, the British Museum, London, England
	China New Art, Kemper Museum, Kansas City, USA
1995	Twentieth Century Chinese Painting-Tradition & Innovation, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
1994	New Art in China, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
	Heart of Darkness, the Kroller-muller Museum, the Netherlands
	Site-Action, The Artists’ Project, England; The Artists’ Museum, Poland
1993	Fragmented Memory, Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio, USA
	China’s New Art, Post-1989, Hong Kong Arts Festival; US until 1997
1992	Desire for Words, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong; Hong Kong Art Centre, Hong Kong
	Conversations, the Artists’ Museum, Lodz, Poland
1991	New York Diary: 25 Different Things, PS.1 Museum, New York City, USA
	Exceptional Passage-China Contemporary Art, Art gallery Altium, Fukuoka, Japan
1989	No u Turn-china Avant-garde, China National Art Museum, Beijing,Cchina
1988	Cripta, Manent, La Gleris dea Arts lLavalin, Montreal, Canada
	13th International Biennale Tapestry, Musee Cantonal des Beaus-arts, Lausanne, Switzerland
	6th National Exhibition of China, China National Art Museum, Beijing, China
1985	National Art Exhibition of Sports, China National Art Museum, Beijing, China
1979	Shanghai Art Exhibition, Shanghai Art Museum, China