Guan Wei
Design 2006
Acrylic and collage on paper
65 x 54 cm framed
Courtesy the artist
Guan Wei’s works relate to global social and environmental dilemmas with insight and humour. His rich cultural symbolism and informed political awareness are drawn from the contrasting realities of living in China and Australia.
Guan Wei was born in 1957 in Beijing, China. In 1989, three years after graduating from the Department of Fine Arts at Beijing Capital University, Guan Wei came to Australia to take up an artist-in-residence at the Tasmanian School of Art. He has received many grants and residencies, including a Visual Arts Board Fellowship (2008-09); the Australia Council’s Greene St Studio residency in New York; and the Cite International des Art studio residency in Paris.
Guan Wei has held more than 40 solo exhibitions including, most recently, at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong; Kaliman Gallery, Sydney; Turner Galleries, Perth; Red Gate Gallery 798 Village, Beijing; Museum of Contemporary Art; Powerhouse Museum; Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide; Sherman Galleries, Sydney; ARC One Gallery, Melbourne; Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo; and Earl Lu Gallery, Singapore.
He has been included in numerous important contemporary exhibitions in Australia and internationally, including at ACCA, Melbourne; Clemenger Award, National Gallery of Victoria; Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art; 10th Havana Biennial Cuba; Hamburger Bahnhof Museum of Contemporary Art, Berlin; Osaka Triennial of Contemporary Art, Japan; and Kwangju Biennale, Korea.
Guan Wei’s work is held in major public, private and corporate collections in Australia, Hong Kong and Japan.
Craftsman House published Guan Wei’s monograph in 2006. Wild Peony/Powerhouse Museum published Other Histories in 2008.
