1963
Born in Handan, Hebei province China
Lives and works in Beijing
1980-1983
Hebei Light Industry College, Ceramic Art Studies, China
1985-1989
Graduated at Print Dept. the Central Institute of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
One of the leading proponents of the early 1990s Cynical Realist movement, Fang Lijun’s work encapsulates the disillusionment of China’s youth; a generation defined by the events at Tiananmen Square and China’s internal domestic policies. Constructed around loose narratives Fang’s images personalise sentiments of disenchantment, angst, and rebellion; his fictional suggestions conveyed through his illustrative style and re-occurring bald-headed protagonist.
Fang’s practice exhibits a rarefied technical skill rigorously studied through his Social Realist training; his combination of this aesthetic with references to contemporary comics, folk art, and dynastic painting characterise a national identity in flux, distilling a position of integrity from tradition and the modern world.
Fang’s monumental sized prints revive the ancient Asian practice of woodblock printing — a complicated and exacting process of carving a ‘negative’ image into a panel, coating the surface in ink, and impressing the image onto paper; each different colour and tone requires a separate plate and order of printing. Due to their immense scale, Fang’s images are composed on several adjoined scrolls; the elongated strips create both an emotive fragmenting of the image, and create a reference to memory and historical testimony. Thematically, each of these prints describe the plight of the individual against the ‘mass’, creating a spiritual contemplation of solitude the quest for personal probity in the face of adversity.
Fang’s painting 30th Mary evokes these same sentiments with a humorous effect. Reminiscent of European church ceiling paintings, Fang portrays an order of ascendancy of same-same kewpie figures, each based on his own image. Executed with painstaking hyper-realism, the clouds formulate as a tempestuous funnel rather than a portal of billowing promise. Contrasted with the kitsch palette and pop rendering of the grotesque cherubs, Fang’s painting approaches the sanctity of ideological assurance with an empathetic cynicism.
Solo Exhibition
2012
Living Multitudes – Fang Lijun Solo Exhibition , Times Square, Hong Kong
2011
From Symbols to Analysis, Xi’an Museum, Xi’an, China Fang Lijun Document into University, Southwest Jiaotong School of Art and Communication, China,Jakarta, Indonesia 2010
Fang Lijun_An Accidental Myth, Tank Loft * Chongqing Contemporary Art Center, Chongqing, China Fang Lijun, Art Museum of Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China Fang Lijun, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China 2009
Fang Lijun: Thread of Time, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou,China Fang Lijun, Sea and Sky, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany Living Like a Wild Dog 1993-2008 Fang Lijun’s Archive, Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei, Taiwan Fang Lijun, Arario New York, New York, U.S.A. 2008
Chinese Painting: Zhang Xiaogang, Fang Lijun and Feng Mengbo, The Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech
2007
Fang Lijun Print Exhibition, dARTex [The Danish Art Exchange], Beijing, China; The Art Gallery of Vendsyssel, Denmark; The Art Gallery of the Faroe Island; The Kastrupgaard Collection, Denmark Fang Lijun Solo Exhibition, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China FANG LIJUN, Hunan Provincial Museum, Changsha, China FANG LIJUN PLACES TO PLACES TO PLACES, Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin, Berlin, Germany FANG LIJUN: the Heads, The Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar,Denver, U.S.A.
2006
Fang Lijun: TODAY, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China From My Hand, Sculptures & Woodcuts by Fang Lijun, Mickael Berger, Gallery, U.S.A. Life is Now: Solo Exhibition by Fang Lijun, CP Foundation; Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia Fang Lijun – Holzschnitte und Zeichnungen, SMB Kupferstichkabinett Staatliche Museum zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany Fang Lijun, gravures sur bois (woodcuts!_in translation),Galerie de France, Paris, France
2005
National Galerie / China Art Museum, Beijing, China
Art Cologne, Germany
2004
Fang Lijun, Leben Ist Jetzt, Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin, Beijing, Berlin, Germany
2002
Fang Lijun, Between Beijing & Dali, Woodcuts & Paintings 1989 – 2002, Ludwig Forum für InternationaleKunst Aachen
2001
Fang lijun, Asian Fine Art, Berlin
Prüss + Ochs Gallery Germany
1998
Fang Lijun, Max Protetch Gallery, New York
From Beijing to Amsterdam and Back, Stedelijk Museum/ Galerie Serieuse Zaken, Amsterdam
1996
Fang Lijun: Human Images in an Uncertain Age, The Japan Foundation Asia Center, Tokyo
Fang Lijun, Galerie Bellefroid, Paris
Fang Lijun, Galerie Serieuse Zaken, Amsterdam
2005
Kinderszenen – Child’s Play, Rohbaukunst, Groß Leuthen Berlin – Brandenburg, Germany
Mahjong, Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland
New Work / New Aquisitions, MoMa New York, USA
Clues, WHITE SPACE BEIJING , Beijing, China
Sammlung Hoffmann Berlin, Präsentation 2006/2007, Germany
ART FORUM Berlin 2005, Berlin, Germany
2001
C’est Moi, C’est Nous, Galerie de France, Paris
Millennium Portrait of China, Bremen City Gallery, Bremen
2000
Portraits de Chine Contemporaine, Espace Culturel Francois Mitterand, Perigueux, France
1998-2000
Inside Out, Asia Society, New York, MoMA San Francisco, Seattle, Monterey
1999
d’APERTutto, 48th Venice Biennale, Venice
1998
Black & White, Chinese Contemporary, London
5000 + 10, Chinese Contemporary (London), Bilbao, Spain
Double Kitsch: Painters from China, Max Protetch Gallery, New York
1996-1997
CHINA!, Kunstmuseum, Bonn
1996
4 Points de Rencontre, Chine, 1996, Galerie de France, Paris
Begegnungen mit China, Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany
Beijing/No No Soap Opera?, Munich, Germany
New Collection of Commissioned works on the theme ‘Hiroshima’, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art
1995
Visions of Happiness – Ten Asian Contemporary Artists, The Japan Foundation, ASEAN Cultural Centre, Tokyo
Unser Jahrhundert, Ludwig Museum, Cologne
First Kwangju Biennial, Kwangju, Korea
Couplet 4, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Avant Gardes Artistiques Xineses, Centre d’Art Santa Monica, Barcelona
1994-1995
Fourth Asian Art Show, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka/Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo
1994
Welt-Moral Kunsthalle, Basel
Chinese Contemporary Art at Sao Paulo, 22nd International Biennial of Sao Paulo
New Chinese Art, Hanart TZ Gallery, Taipei
1993-1994
China Avant Garde, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (also Kunsthalle, Rotterdam, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, Kunsthallen Brandts Kloedefabrik, Odense, Denmark)
1993
China’s New Art, Post-1989, Hong Kong Art Centre, Hong Kong
Mao Goes Pop, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Passagio ad Oriente, 45th Venice Biennale, Venice
New Art From China Post-1989, Marlborough Fine Art London
1992-1993
New Art From China/Post Mao Product, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, City of Ballaart Fine Art Gallery, Ballaart, Canberra School of Art Gallery, Canberra
1992
Fang Lijun and Liu Wei Oil Painting Exhibition, Beijing Art Museum, Beijing
Group Exhibitions
2012
Vision – Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition, Z-art Center, Shanghai, China
Faces, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Made in China, Va Gallery, Hong Kong
2011
Four People, Four Ways, PIN Gallery, Beijing, China Bad Exhibition, PIN Gallery, Beijing, China A Schema for Printmaking, Contemporary by Angela Li, Hong Kong Pure Views: New Painting from China, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, U.S.A. 2010
Shanghai Expo Prints Exhibition (Shanghai), Shun Art Gallery; Wellside Gallery; Levant Art Gallery; Ming Liu Arts Institution;Shanghai, China Shanghai Expo Prints Exhibition (Tokyo), 香染美術; Gallery Furuya; BLD Gallery; Art Complex Center; Satelites Art Lab, 360°Graphics, Tokyo, Japan Six + Six: Energy, Pass On, Gallery Yang, Beijing, China Pure Views – New Painting from China, Louise Blouin Foundation,London, U.K. Negotiations the Second Today’s Documents, Today Art Museum,Beijing, China Picture Consumption: Research Representational Painting, Times Art Museum, Beijing, China Reshaping History – China Art 2000-2009, CNCC, Beijing, China Clouds: Power of Asian Contemporary Art, Soka Art Center, Beijing, China
2009
The Face of the Chinese Avant-Garde, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, New York, U.S.A. The Contemporary Art Achievement Exhibition in Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China,Beijing Hotel, Beijing, China The Home Court: an Exhibition of Contemporary Art, White Box Museum of Art, Beijing, China Open Vision – Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Art, Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art of the National Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic Collision-Cases of Contemporary China Art Experiment, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China Embrace Suzhou Exhibition of the Chinese Contemporary Arts, Suzhou Museum, Suzhou, China The First Academic Contemporary China Engraving Exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China CHINAMANIA, Arken Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark The Chinese Pavilion at the 53rd International Art Museum Venice Biennale – See the World in Grain of Sand, Giardini Arsenale, Venice, Italy A Gift to Marco Polo, Island of San Servolo, Venice, Italy Arrange of the Journey-Zhang Yichun Teacher & Students Join- Exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China BODY, Center of Contemporary Art Shang Dong, Nanjing, China China’s ReVision, the Opening of Aye Eastation Gallery, Beijing, China Paperwork, DF2 Gallery, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
2008
Avant-Garde China: Twenty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art,
the National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan 1st.12 Taida Contemporary Art Museum Collection Exhibition, Taida Contemporary Art Museum, Tianjin, China Asia 3rd Nanjing Triennial, Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, China Art Beijing 2008, National Agricultural Exhibition Center, Beijing, China Living in Song Zhuang, Song Zhuang Art Museum, Beijing, China Encounter, Pace Beijing, Beijing, China Case Studies of Artists in Art History and Art Criticism, SZ Art Center, Beijing, China Half-Life of a Dream: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Logan Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco, U.S.A. Cina XXI Secolo. Arte Fra Identità e trasformazione, the Palazzo delle Esposizionz, Roma, Italy 2007
On Ink and Wash – A Dialogue Between Contemporary Artists, Tank Loft – Chongqing Contemporary Art Center, Chongqing, China China – Facing Reality, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Wien, Austria Sh Contemporary, Shanghai Exhibition Center,Shanghai, China Arrogance & Romance, Ordos Art Museum, Ordos, China Red Hot, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, U.S.A.
Black White Gray, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China Art 38 Basel, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland Inferno in Paradise: 10 Years Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin; Beijing, Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin; Beijing,Berlin, Germany We are Your Future: Contemporary Art from Latin America and China, Special Project for the 2nd Moscow Biennale, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia
2006
Absolute Images Chinese Contemporary Art, Arario Gallery Cheonan, Cheonan, Korea The Sacred and the Profane, Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin; Beijing, Berlin, Germany Best Asia, Gallery Artside, Kwanhoon-Dong, Seoul, Korea Change, Baibei Museum, Taipei City, Taiwan Expressions of Contemporary Chinese Water and Ink Painting, Huitai Art Center, Tianjin, China A Point in Time-in Wuhan, Fine Arts Literature, Wuhan City Fine Arts Literature Art Center, Wuhan, China China Coup, The Red Mansion Foundation, London, U.K. Red, Diya Art, Tainan City, China 2005
Mahjong, Bern Museum, Switzerland New Work/New Acquisitions, MOMA, New York, U.S.A. CP Biennale 2005: URBAN/CULTURE, Bank Indonesia Museum, Jakarta, Indonesia
2004
East Wind, Museum Franz Gertsch, Switzerland
Dreaming of the Dragon’s Nation: Contemporary Art Exhibition from China, Culture of People’s Republic of China & Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism of the Republic of Ireland, Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Ireland CHINA, THE BODY EVERYWHERE?, Museum of Contemporary Art,Marseilles, France 2003
Chinese Printmaking Today, British Libtary & Muban Foundation, British Library, London, U.K. From China with Art, National Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia DER REST DER WELT, Neuffer Am Park, Pirmasens, Germany Alors, la Chine, Pompidou Center, Paris, France CP Biennale 2003: INTERPELLATION, National Gallery Jakarta, Indonesia 2002
Image is Power: Wang Guangyi, Zhang Xiaogang, Fang Lijun, He Xiang Ning Art Museum, Shenzhen Fang Lijun & Jörg Immendorff, Shanghai Contemporary Albrecht, ochs & Wei, Shanghai, Künstler helfen alten und neuen Meistern, Auktion, National Galerie Berlin,Germany Guangzhou Triennial 2002, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
2001
Millennium Portrait of China, Bremen City Gallery, Bremen, Germany Towards a New Image: 20 Years of Contemporary Chinese Painting, Beijing: National Art Museum, Shanghai: Shanghai Art Museum, Chengdu: Sichuan Art Museum, Guangdong: Art Museum Guangzhou,China China Art Now!. Singapore Art Museum, Singapore In Holz Geschnitten-Dürer, Gauguin, Penck und die Anderen, Museum Bochum, Bochum, Germany
2000
Portraits de Chine Contemporaine, Espace Culturel Francois Mitterand, Perigueux, France 1998-2000
Inside Out, Asia Society, New York, MoMA San Francisco, Seattle, Monterey 1999
48th Venice Biennale, Venice 1998
Black & White, Chinese Contemporary, London Double Kitsch: Painters from China, Max Protetch Gallery, New York
1996-1997
CHINA!, Kunstmuseum, Bonn (travelling to Vienna, Copenhagen and Warsaw) 1996
4 Points de Rencontre, Chine, 1996, Galerie de France, Paris Begegnungen mit China, Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany New Collection of Commissioned works on the theme Hiroshima, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan 1995
Visions of Happiness – Ten Asian Contemporary Artists, The Japan Foundation, ASEAN Cultural Centre, Tokyo, Japan Unser Jahrhundert, Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany First Kwangju Biennial, Kwangju, Korea Couplet 4, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Avant Gardes Artistiques Xineses, Barcelona, Spain 1994-1995
Fourth Asian Art Show, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka/Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo
1994
Welt-Moral Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland Chinese Contemporary Art at Sao Paulo, 22nd International Biennial of Sao Paulo, Brazil New Chinese Art, Hanart TZ Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan 1993-1994
China Avant Garde, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (also Kunsthalle, Rotterdam, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, Kunsthallen Brandts Kloedefabrik, Odense, Denmark) 1993
China New Art, Post-1989, Hong Kong Art Centre, Hong Kong Mao Goes Pop, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia Passagio ad Oriente, 45th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy New Art From China Post-1989, Marlborough Fine Art London, U.K. New Art From China/Post Mao Product, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, City of Ballaart Fine Art Gallery, Ballaart, Canberra School of Art Gallery, Canberra, Australia 1992
Fang Lijun and Liu Wei Oil Painting Exhibition, Beijing Art Museum, Beijing, China
1989
China/Avant Garde, China National Gallery, Beijing, China 1984
Sixth National Art Exhibition, Guangzhou, China.
