Wang Guofeng
Wang Guofeng was born in 1967 in Liaoning province.
Through the use of a wide array of media, from photography to video, drawing, sound and installation to convey his conceptual perspective, Wang Guofeng is fascinated by the implications of the memory of the past historical events to the contemporary world, as he previously stated that “human beings are often in a state of amnesia, so history repeats itself again and again”. His News series manipulates pictures of events of global significance and inserts text on each image to challenge the viewers’ preconditioned perspectives and to prompt them to rethink the distance between the appearance and the truth. In another emblematic series, Pixelated, he uses different techniques like blowing up the pixels of an oversized image, blurring pictures to obscure our interpretation. Thus, we are forced to stop and truly consider what is happening in the image and its significance behind.
Wang previously had solo exhibitions at: Filter, Ginkgo Space, Beijing, China (2021); How to connect our memories, Ginkgo Space, Beijing, China (2019); Gwangju Biennale 2018 – Spectacle Absolute, Gwangju, Korea (2018); Probe II, de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong (2015); Probe I, de Sarthe Gallery, Beijing, China (2015); News, de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong (2013); Wang Guofeng Solo Exhibition, Gallery 604, Busan, South Korea (2010); Wang Guofeng Solo Exhibition, Russian Academy of Arts, Moscow, Russia (2007).
His notable group shows include Ties & Accompaniment, Eunam Museum of Art, Gwangju, Korea (2022); Rhythm and Refrain, Song Museum of Art, Beijing, China (2022); Apocalypse of Yesterday, Ginkgo Space, Beijing, China (2022); Border Crossings, The Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern Switzerland (2021); 2020 - Song Art Invitation Exhibition, Song Art Museum, Beijing, China (2020); III Bienal del Sur, Institute of the Arts of Image and Space (IARTES), Caracas, Venezuela (2019); 12nd Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea (2018); On Sharks and Humanity, Parkview Arts Action, Hong Kong Maritime Museum, Hong Kong (2017); Bric-a-brac: The Jumble of Growth – Third Today’s Documents, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China (2016); Beyond Image - Laboratory of Light, Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, China (2016); Chinese Contemporary Photography 2009 – 2014, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2014); Mind Beating (collateral event) – Fifty-fifth Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2013); LATITUDE/ATTITUDE, Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition, Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong (2012); ATTITUDE, Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition, Parkview Green Gallery, Beijing, China (2012); Contemporary Art of China and Japan, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, South Korea (2010); Chinese Art Today, National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Beijing, China (2006); New Zone Chinese Art, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland (2003).
Wang Guofeng was recognized as one of the top 15 contemporary photography artists in Asia by the International Photography Awards Association IPA in 2019. He is the recipient of the Award of Art China “Artist of the Year” award for photography in 2014. He was also invited by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) on five occasions in 2011 - 2015 to photograph the North Korean socialist political architecture and the 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s birthday respectively.
He currently lives and works in Beijing, China.
de Sarthe past exhibitions:
Standing by Themselves: China Now, 4 - 21 May, 2016
Probe II, 28 November, 2015 - 15 Februray, 2016
Probe, 8 November - 25 December, 2015
Artists at Play, 15 August - 16 October, 2015
Where Are We? 23 April - 23 May, 2015
The Lightness of Being, 20 January - 28 Februray, 2015
You, I, Among Us, 18 December, 2014 - 15 March, 2015
Summer Gallery Selection, 27 June - 13 September, 2014
News, 21 November - 21 December, 2013
