Guo Fengyi: This Too Is Guo Fengyi

Public program: June 20, 2020
Guo Fengyi and the Contemporary: Revisiting “The Power of the Public Realm”
Panel discussion with Tianzhuo Chen, Kuai Lehao and Lu Jie, moderated by Zhang Yuling

KWM artcenter is pleased to present the Chinese artist Guo Fengyi’s solo exhibition entitled This Too Is Guo Fengyi. The exhibition contains two sections. In the main hall there are 14 works on paper and one group of early drawings and notes. In the screening room, we are presenting Guo Fengyi’s archive from the Long March Project, an experimental text from the writer Jia Qin and an interview between the artist Xu Tan and Guo Fengyi from 2007. This exhibition aims to re-introduce Guo Fengyi’s artistic practice to a new public. By way of literally following her brush strokes one can perceive the evolution of her mysterious imagery’s formation.

Exhibition curated by Aimee Lin

Curatorial statement
Guo Fengyi’s drawings were first introduced to China and subsequently to an international contemporary art public through The Long March Project: A Walking Visual Display initiated in 2002. The exhibitions Guo Fengyi: Who Is Guo Fengyi (2005), Guo Fengyi: I Am Guo Fengyi (2009), and Guo Fengyi: Landscape Portrait (2014) directly set out to establish the artist’s identity primarily followed by presenting a criteria through which the artwork could be appreciated. Guo Fengyi’s 30 year extraordinary history of visibility and acceptance internationally has helped a reevaluation of her work in China. At the beginning she was recognised as an “alternative” or an “outsider artist” . In the exhibition Guo Fengyi: To See from a Distance at The Drawing Center, New York, the Director of the institution and Art History expert Laura Hoptman pointed out that Guo Fengyi was an artist who “broke the narrow and unchanging nature of contemporary art.” The phenomenon of Guo Fengyi over 3 decades has contributed to a profound widening of how people perceive what can be considered art.

Nowadays with a renewed understanding, there’s no need for us to pontificate over a contemporary definition of Guo Fengyi’s art. We no longer need to position Guo within the category of “controversial” or “outsider artist.” Therefore, today in 2020, through This Too Is Guo Fengyi, we hope to provide every audience, whether professional or not, a chance to further recognize Guo Fengyi and concentrate on her art without the restraints of any prejudgements. Her art is informed by her life long mystical practices and the wisdom gained from outside conventional knowledge systems. Her drawings demonstrate her curiosity and her insight into life and the universe, the traditional and the contemporary, and Chinese and world culture. Her work reveals her voice, her story and how she brings wisdom, strength and inspiration to others through a unique language.

Through this exhibition, we would like to present Guo Fengyi from different perspectives. Firstly from her “I” perspective which exists in her paintings, notes and words, and is represented in the world we have created in the main hall of KWM artcenter. Secondly, in the screening room, from a “she” perspective, in the form of photos, documentaries and memoirs from the documents of the Long March Project, in the experimental text by the writer Jia Qin and an interview made by the artist Xu Tan as a part of his Keyword Project in 2007.

Due to the artistic and personal charm of Guo Fengyi, this exhibition is supported by many people including artist Xu Tan and He Chi, John Tain from Asia Art Archive, Theresa Liang from Long March Project and her team. Guo Fengyi was an artist who started to draw with the purpose of curing. In her practice, a path to explore her wisdom and view a new way to relate with the world is offered. These, considerations, among others, we hope the viewers experience.