Born 1942, in X'ian, Shaanxi Province, China; Died 2010.
Guo Fengyi has drawn a spectacular amount of attention since her art came to light in recent years. She was born in Xi’an, central China, in 1942. She obtained her high school diploma in 1962 and found work in a rubber factory. However, severe bouts of arthritis forced her to give up her career at the age of thirty-nine. She turned to alternative medicine in the hope of alleviating her symptoms, and found a new spiritual path in Qi Gong. She started experiencing visions in 1989, as a result of which she produced large numbers of drawings, first on the backs of pages from calendars, then later on rice paper. She worked with Indian ink and brushes, producing works up to five metres long, drawn with no initial plan in mind, discovering her own creation as she worked. The multitude of delicate lines form ghostly figures, dragons, phoenixes, and faces, sometimes interwoven, smiling and serene or terrifying and monstrous.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020
Guo Fengyi: To See from a Distance, The Drawing Center, New York, NY
2019
Guo Fengyi, Gladstone Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2015
The Art of Guo Fengyi, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2014
Guo Fengyi: LANDSCAPEPORTRAIT, Long March Space, Beijing
2013
Guo Fengyi, Long March Space, Beijing
2012
Guo Fengyi, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2011
Guo Fengyi, Collection de L’Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland
2010
Guo Fengyi: A Chinese Rhapsody, Galerie Christian Berst, Paris
2009
Guo Fengyi, “China in Four Seasons”, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Zealand
I am Guo Fengyi, Long March Space, Beijing, China
2008
Guo Fengyi, Galerie Barbara Gross, Munich, Germany
2005
Who is Guo Fengyi?, Long March Space, Beijing, China
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020
An Alternative Canon: Art Dealers Collecting Outsider Art, curated by Paul Laster, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2019
Memory Palaces: Inside the Collection of Audrey B. Heckler, American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
Doors of Perception, Curated by Javier Téllez in collaboration with the Outsider Art Fair, Frieze New York
2018
Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance, Nottingham Contemporary, UK
Chinese Medicine in America, Museum of Chinese in America, New York
2016
World Made By Hand, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2013
Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
The Alternative Guide to the Universe, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
The Encyclopedic Palace: The 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
2012
Collector of Skies, curated by Valérie Rousseau and Barbara Safarova, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
Phantoms of Asia, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
2011
Spring Group Exhibition in Long March Space, Long March Space, Beijing, China
2010
10000 Lives, Gwangju Biennale 2010, Gwangju, South Korea
2009
The Kaleidoscopic Eye: Thysse-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Exhibition #1, The Museum of Everything, London, UK
Art Statement: Guo Fengyi, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
2007
China Welcomes You...Desires, Struggles, New Identities, Kunsthaus, Graz, Austria
2006
Ink, Life Taste – To Sugar Add Some Salt - 5th International Ink Painting Biennial of Shenzhen, He Xiangning Museum, Shenzhen, China
Dirty Yoga, 2006 Taipei Biennale, Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei
Long March Yan’an Project, Yan’an, Sha’anxi Province, China
Building Code Violations, Long March Space, Beijing, China
2005
Art Circus – Jumping from the Ordinary, 2005 Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, Japan
Drawing Connections, conference exhibition, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
A Second Sight, 2nd Prague International Biennale of Contemporary Art, National Gallery, Prague,
2004
The Long March Project - le moine et le demon – Contemporary Chinese Art Exhibition, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France
2003
Power of the Public Realm, 25000 Cultural Transmission Center, Beijing, China
2002
The Long March – A Walking Visual Display, “What if Women Ruled the World? –dialogue with Judy Chicago,” Lugu Lake, Sichuan Province, China
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2017
Kukielski, Tina, "Guo Fengyi." In The Hidden Art: The Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Self-Taught Artists from the Audrey B. Heckler Collection, edited by Valérie Rousseau, 230-233. New York: Skira Rizzoli, 2017.
2011
Peiry, Lucienne, Guo Fengyi, exhibition catalogue, Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne.
2005
Jie, Lu, WHO IS GUO FENGYI? A Long March Project, Long March Space, Beijing.
SELECTED ARTICLES
2016
Doran, Anne, "Time out Critics' pick: The Art of Guo Fengyi," Time Out New York, January.
Fateman, Johanna, "Guo Fengyi at Andrew Edlin Gallery," Artforum, January.
Sutphin, Eric, "Art in America Review: Guo Fengyi," Art in America, March.
"The Art of Guo Fengyi in the New Yorker," The New Yorker, January.
2014
Raczka, Robert, “An Unprized Favorite, Puzzling Inclusions, Best Dead Artists and More in the Carnegie International,” Pittsburgh City Paper, March 5.
2013
Hannon, Julie, “A Playful, Soulful Spectacle,” Carnegie Magazine, Winter.
Kent, Sarah, “Alternative Guide to the Universe, Hayward Gallery: Visionaries, eccentrics and misfits share their visions of the future,” TheArtsDesk.com, June 12.
Yuanqing, Sun, “Marching to the Blues,” ChinaDaily USA, May 3.
2012
Ditmars, Hadani, “Taking Charge,” Canadian Art, Vol. 29:2.
Sin, Lena, “The E-List,” Province.
2011
Chauvy, Laurence, “Guo Fengyi, Delicate Magicienne Chinoise,” Le Temps, December 9.
Peiry, Lucienne, “Guo Fengyi,” L’Art Brut, Vol. 23.
2010
Smith, Trevor, “10,000 Lives,” ARTnews, Vol. 109:10.
2009
“China in Four Seasons: Guo Fengyi,” Art & Artworks, September.
“China in Four Seasons: Guo Fengyi,” Tourist Times, November.
Rookes, Felicity, “Artist’s Body of Work on Show,” Taranaki Daily News, September 21.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Lille Métropole Musée d’Art Moderne, d’Art Contemporain et d’Art Brut, France
Collection de l'Art brut, Lausanne, Switzerland
The Museum of Everything, London, United Kingdom
Collection Treger Saint Silvestre, Portugal