Guan Wei b. 1957

  • Artist (Painter)
Guan Wei's paintings draws on his rich cultural repertory of symbols and his informed socio-political awareness, born of his experience of the contrasting realities of his former home, China and of Australia, where he has lived since 1989.
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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 was invited to undertake two further residencies: one at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney (1992), the other at the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University (1993). In 2003, he was artist in residence at the Greene Street Studio, New York, and Visiting Fellow at the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University, Canberra.

Guan Wei’s work has a profoundly felt, if implicitly ironic, moral dimension. In their complex symbolic form, his subjects potently embody our era’s social and environmental dilemmas. They are equally the product of his rich cultural repertory of symbols and his informed socio-political awareness, born of his experience of the contrasting realities of his former home, China and, since 1989, his new home, Australia.

Guan Wei has held over 40 solo exhibitions, including 'A Mysterious Land’, ARC One, Melbourne (2007), 'Unfamiliar Land’, CACSA (Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia) and 'Echo’, Sherman Galleries (both 2006). He has been included in numerous important contemporary exhibitions in Australia and internationally, such as the Third Asia-Pacific Triennial, Brisbane (1999); 'Man and Space’, Kwangju Biennale (2000); 'Face Up: Contemporary Art from Australia’, Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, Berlin (2003-04); and solo survey exhibitions, such as 'Other Histories: Guan Wei’s Fable for a Contemporary World’ at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (2006) and 'Nesting, or the Art of Idleness 1989-1999’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (1999).

Guan Wei has won several awards, including the 2002 Sir John Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. In 2006 Craftsman House published a monograph on Guan Wei’s work, with essays by Dinah Dysart, Natalie King and Hou Hanru. His work is held in major public collections and numerous university and corporate collections in Australia, as well as international collections.

Writers:
Murray-Cree, Laura
Date written:
2006
Last updated:
2008

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Related stub person groups
  • Kaliman Gallery, Sydney, NSW (associate of)
  • Arc ONE Gallery, Melbourne, Vic. (associate of)
  • Redgate Gallery, Beijing, China (associate of)
Related works
  • Echo (creator of)
  • Sausage No.8 No.9 No.10. (creator of)
  • Island no.3 (creator of)
  • Treasure hunt (detail) (creator of)
Related collections
  • Tokyo Gallery, Japan (collected in)
  • Wesfarmers, WA (collected in)
  • University of Technology, Sydney, NSW (collected in)
  • University of Western Sydney, Nepean, NSW (collected in)
  • Parks Victoria, Melbourne, VIC (collected in)
  • Griffith University, Qld (collected in)
  • Campbelltown Art Gallery, Campbelltown, NSW (collected in)
  • Monash University, Vic. (collected in)
  • Australian National University, Canberra, ACT (collected in)
  • Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA (collected in)
  • University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW (collected in)
  • Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW (collected in)
  • Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Qld (collected in)
  • Australian Embassy, Beijing, China (collected in)
  • Ian Potter Gallery, Melbourne University, Vic. (collected in)
  • Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, NSW (collected in)
  • Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Qld (collected in)
  • Parliament House, Canberra, ACT (collected in)
  • National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Vic. (collected in)
  • National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT (collected in)
  • Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW (collected in)
  • Geelong Art Gallery, Geelon, Vic. (collected in)
  • Contemporary Art and Culture Centre, Osaka, Japan (collected in)
  • Artbank (collected in)
  • Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW (collected in)
Related recognitions
  • Grant, Australia Council for the Arts, Artist in residence at Cite International des Art Paris (received)
  • Australian - China Council residence grant at Taipei Artist Village (received)
  • Feng Shui' Mural Painting for 700 Collins St, Docklands (received)
  • 2004 : Commission 'Paper War' For SBS & Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, Vic. (received)
  • Visiting Fellow at the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University, ACT (received)
  • Australia Council for the Arts residency at the Greene Street Studio (received)
  • Sir John Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales (received)
  • Residency at the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University (received)
  • 1992 : Residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW (received)
  • Artist-in-residence at the Tasmanian School of Art (received)
Related events
  • A Mysterious Land (exhibited at)
  • Day After Tomorrow (exhibited at)
  • Down Under DenHaag Sculptuur 07 (exhibited at)
  • Echo (exhibited at)
  • Jiang Hu (exhibited at)
  • 2006 The Year in Art (exhibited at)
  • A Distant Land (exhibited at)
  • Other Histories: Guan Wei's Fable for a Contemporary World (exhibited at)
  • Between River and Lake (exhibited at)
  • The Nature Machine - Contemporary Art Nature and Technology (exhibited at)
  • The Wynne Prize Exhibition (exhibited at)
  • Art TV (exhibited at)
  • Prediction-Reflection (exhibited at)
  • Cycle Tracks will abound in utopia (exhibited at)
  • Creating Paradise on Earth (exhibited at)
  • Hothouse the flower in contemporary art (exhibited at)
  • Science Fiction (exhibited at)
  • Deeper Places (exhibited at)
  • Osaka Triennial 2001 (exhibited at)
  • Lines of Descent, The family in Contemporary Asian Art (exhibited at)
  • Man and Space (exhibited at)
  • Five Continents and One City: Second International Salon of Painting (exhibited at)
  • Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (exhibited at)
  • Nesting or Art of Idleness (exhibited at)
  • Sulman Prize Exhibition (exhibited at)
  • The Last Supper (exhibited at)
  • Mao Goes Pop, China Post-1989 (exhibited at)
  • Autumn Salon Exhibition (exhibited at)