This interview was conducted in Cave Café, 798, Beijing on 4 November 2007.


Biography:

Wang Guangyi (b. 1957, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province) is an artist and currently lives and works in Beijing.

In 1984, Wang graduated from the Department of Oil Painting at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now the China Academy of Art). After graduating, he returned to his hometown of Harbin where he established the Northern Art Group with friends who shared his interest in art, literature and philosophy. One of the leading experimental artists in the 1980s, Wang helped organize the 'Large-Scale Slide Exhibition of New Wave Art', which took place at the Zhuhai Conference in 1986, and in 1989, his painting series Mao Zedong MAO was exhibited at the ‘China/Avant-Garde Exhibition’ at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.

In 1990, Wang began teaching at the Hubei College of Technology in Wuhan. In the same year, he began creating his oil painting series The Great Criticism,  which was exhibited at the ‘Cocart-International Invited Exhibition of Post-Pop Art’ (Milan, Italy, 1991). His work was also published on the cover of Flash Art magazine (1991) and in Beijing Youth News (Beijing qingnianbao) (March 22, 1991). This series was subsequently exhibited at the ‘China/Avant-Garde Exhibition’ in Germany (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 1993), as well as in ‘China’s New Art, Post-1989’ (Hong Kong Arts Centre, 1993) and at the 45th Venice Biennale (1993).


簡歷︰

王廣義，1957年生於黑龍江哈爾濱。藝術家，現居北京。

1984年畢業於杭州浙江美術學院（現中國美術學院）油畫系。畢業後，王廣義回到哈爾濱，與從事藝術、文學、哲學的朋友成立「北方藝術群體」。王廣義在八十年代積極推動中國當代藝術的發展，積極參與策劃珠海舉行的《85青年美術思潮大型幻燈展及學術討論會》。而其〈毛澤東MAO〉系列在《中國現代藝術展》（1989，北京中國美術館）展出。
 
1990年於武漢湖北工業學院（現湖北工業大學）任教，並開始創作〈大批判〉油畫系列。翌年，此系列作品獲邀參加 《Cocart-後波普國際邀請展》（1991，意大利米蘭），並發表在意大利《Flash Art》封面（1991），及《北京青年報》的專題版（〈王廣義現像〉，1991年3月22日文化版）。此系列作品其後於不同的展覽展出，包括《中國前衛藝術展》（1993，德國柏林世界文化宮）；《後八九中國新藝術》（1993，香港藝術中心）；第45屆《威尼斯雙年展》（1993，意大利威尼斯）等。