Wang Gongyi

Wang Gongyi (b. 1946, China) joined the Tianjin People’s Fine Arts Publishing House as an editor after the Cultural Revolution. In 1978, she pursued her master's degree in Printmaking at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou (now the China Academy of Art), and after graduating in 1980 she stayed at the academy as a teacher. In 1986 and 1992, she was invited by the French Ministry of Culture to study art in France. After her residencies at the Museum of Oregon State University and the Pacific Northwest College of Art, she relocated to the United States in 2001 and has since been based in Portland. In the early 1980s, Wang Gongyi gained wide recognition in China after being awarded first prize in the second National Youth Fine Art Exhibition for her powerful suite of seven woodcuts devoted to the Chinese feminist and revolutionary martyr Qiu Jin. This work called for social reforms and represented the passion of a new generation. It has become an important work in the historical narrative of contemporary Chinese art. Using charcoal to imbue strength in her marks, made against a background of ink, watercolor and acrylic, Wang Gongyi brings new life to her recollections of natural landscapes. Wang Gongyi’s landscapes are characterized by an agitated and an unrestrained energy that defies our idealized memories of nature as a soft and subdued realm. Wang Gongyi's works are collected by many important institutions and collections internationally, including: Ashmolean Museum, United Kingdom; China Academy of Art; M+ Museum, Hong Kong; Portland Art Museum, United States; The National People’s Congress, China; The National Art Museum of China; Shanghai Art Museum, China; USC Pacific Asia Museum, United States; and Zhejiang Art Museum, China, among others. In 2022, Wang Gongyi’s works were featured in Centre Pompidou's "Women Artists of the 20th Century" program.