Sui Jianguo

Sui’s early sculptures are highly semiotic in nature, utilizing signs and symbols intimately linked to specific social and historical memories. Throughout his artistic practice, which spans over forty years, Sui gradually focused less on individual identity and more on a wider cultural exploration of space and time. As the artist insists on sculpture’s capacity to create a total reflection on China’s modernity, he has also expanded his practice to include video and public performance. Since 2009, he has gravitated towards greater exploration of tactility in his work, modelling clay with his fingers and incorporating 3D scanning and printing techniques. Many of Sui’s works are rendered large-scale and provide great sensory impact on viewers. In 2009, he began exploring the material properties of 3D scanning, digital carving, and other technological means in sculptural series, such as Planting Trace (2009–present), which make the space called “emptiness” visible to viewers, bringing them closer to an awareness of their own physical embodiment. Sui received a BA from the Fine Arts Department at Shandong University of Arts, Ji’nan, China (1984) and an MA from the Sculpture Department at Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (1989), where he currently presides as a professor emeritus. He has been heralded by art critics for his role as a “pioneer venturing to the farthest reaches of Chinese sculpture.” Sui has been subject of several solo exhibitions, including The Sleep of Reason , Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (2005); Motion / Tension , Today Art Museum, Beijing (2009); The Hague Under Heaven , Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, the Netherlands (2011); Imprisonment and Power , Singapore Art Museum (2012); Sui Jianguo’s Discus Thrower , The British Museum, London (2012); Blind Portrait , Public Art Fund, New York (2014–15); Echo of System , Beijing Minsheng Art Museum (2019); and Dimensions Indefinitely Variable: Sui Jianguo , TAG Art Museum, Qingdao, China (2024–25). Recent group exhibitions include Harmo – Power: The First Jinan International Biennale , Shandong Museum of Art, China (2020–21); Variations: The 3rd Anren Biennial , Anren Art Museum, China (2021–22); Start – Inaugural Exhibition , Start Museum, Shanghai (2022–23); The 7th Guangzhou Triennial , Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China (2023); Time Gravity: 2023 Chengdu Biennial , Chengdu Art Museum, China (2023); Another Story , M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong (2023–25); Portraits , Long Museum, Shanghai (2023–24); and Time Unfinished: Chinese Contemporary Art 1980s x 1990s , Taikang Art Museum, Beijing (2025).