Ji Dachun (1968 Jiangsu Province) is a playful artist who uses grotesque and ironic humor, absurb blends of east and west and a touch of Philip Guston and Cy Twombly to create his paintings, which often have large, wide open spaces. His teddy bear copulating with a pig, and portraits of Marxist leaders in a stretch limousine hint at his wit. He lives and works in Beijing.
Through subversive wit, Ji Dachun addresses the complex relations between Eastern and Western. Usually working in graphite and acrylic wash on canvas, he infuses his paintings with grotesque humor and accident. His subject matter is the happenstance of everyday life reimagined in absurd collisions of form and context, as in the deadpan Mao, Stalin, Lenin, En, Marx (Rolls Royce), 2004, which shows world-Communist figures seated uncomfortably together in a vintage stretch-limo. Other works, such as Turning into a Tree, 2004, are more playfully transformative, combining human anatomy with natural observation. The subdued, self-consuming preciousness of these works expresses Ji Dachun’s irreverent, individualistic aesthetic unique amongst current Chinese art.
1968 Born in Nantong, Jiangsu province, China
1992 – 1997 Bachelor in Fine Arts, sculpture department, Faculty of Fine Art Alonso Cano of Granada. Spain.
1997 – 2000 Master in European Arts and Cultures. Leicester University (UK) and AVB, Tilburg (NL).
2000 – 2001 De Pont Atelier. De Pont Museum. Tilburg, The Netherlands
2001 – 2003 HISK. Hoger Institute Schone Kunsten. Antwerp, Belgium.
2004 PhD in Arts. Faculty of Fine Art Alonso Cano of Granada. Spain.
2004 – 2005 MA in Photography. The Ohio State University. Columbus, Ohio, USA.
Solo Exhibitions
2009
Seeing Is NOT Believing, aye gallery, Beijing, China
2007
Ji Dachun, Base Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
dARTex, Beijing, China
Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Chinese Window, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland
2006
Pyo Gallery , Seoul, Korea
Soka Contemporary Space, Beijing, China
2005
Ji Dachun, Posco Art Museum Seoul Korea
2005
Plum Blossoms Gallery?CAmerican New York 2005 Plum Blossoms Gallery, Hongkong ,China
2004
Ji Dachun, Keumsan gallery, Korea
Ji Dachun, Art Beatus, Hong Kong
2001
Ji Dachun, Soka Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2000
Ji Dachun, Chinese Contemporary, London, UK
and East Link Gallery, Shanghai, China
1999
Ji Dachun, BASE Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Group Exhibitions
2010
Fang Gallery – Grand Opening, Jakarta, Indonesia
Bazaar Art Jakarta 2010 – Indonesian Art Fair, Jakarta
2009
China’s Revision, Eastation Gallery, Beijing, China
2008
China’s Revision, Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany
Liberation Feet — Contemporary Chinese Drawing, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney,Australia
AURUM L’or dans l’art contemporain, Center PasquArt, Switzerland
Case Studies of Artists in Art History and Art Critisism, SZ Art Center, Beijing 798, China
Note of Conception, Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing 798, China
China Gold, Muse e Maillol, Paris, France
As Animals, Lausanne Art Museum, Switzerland
2007
The Power of Universe — Exhibition of Frontier Contemporary Chinese, Asia Art Center, Beijing, China
Absolute Images II, ARARIO Gallery, New York, USA
Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Salzburg Modern Art Museum, Austria
China — Facing Reality at MuMoK, Museum Modern Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna, Austria
Ge An Guan Huo, Evangelische Studierendengemeinde (Dietrich – Bonhoeffer – Haus), Kassel, Germany
2006
New Interface, Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai, China
The New China, Arario, Beijing, China
Opening exhibition LONGRUN ART Beijing, China
Yum Cha – Contemporary Chinese, Ray Hughes gallery, Sydney, Australia
“Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection”, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany
ARCO 06, Madrid, Spain
Welcome, Welcome: Art-Beijing-Contemporary, Base gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Art&Issue-China Korea exchange exhibition, Soka contemporary Space, Beijing
The Self-made Generation: A Retrospective of New Chinese Painting,Zenda Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai
2005
Exhilaration, Aura Gallery, Shanghai 2005 Cartoon, Beijing, China 2005 Yum Cha-Contemporary Chinese, Ray Hughes Gallery, Australia 2005 Modern art of Beijing, Japan
2004
Chicago International Art Fair, U.S.A 2004 Democracy Forever, New York, Plum Blossoms Gallery 2004 A New Expression of Asia & Australia, South of Taiwan Art Center, Taiwan
2003
Chinese Contemporary, Ray Hughes Gallery, Australia 2003 The Reach of Chinese Contemporary Art, Pusan, Korea
2002
I’ve seen it all Aura gallery, Shanghai, China
2001
Extra/Ordinary, Aura Gallery, Shanghai, The 1st Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu, China
1998
Still Life, Beijing, China
1997
Another Modernism, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
1996
Attended Reality: Present and Future, Art Garden Int’l Art Museum,Beijing, China
1993
The 1st China Oil Painting Biennial Exhibition, National Art Museum Beijing, China
