Born in 1949 in Beijing, Wang Keping is a sculptor who was one of the founding members of the first non-conformist artist's group in China called The Stars, which set the stage for avant-agarde art in China. Wang's wooden sculptures shocked the art world in Beijing in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His sculptures are visually informed by an amalgamation of pre-historic Ice Age statuettes and 20th Century sculptors, like Constantin Brancusi. He carves parts of the human body as heavy, rounded, and bulbous and twists these parts to create recognizable, yet distorted forms. Wang is particularly interested in negotiating the possibilities of depicting the female body.
Read MoreHe has exhibited predominantly in Paris, but also in Tokyo, Zurich, New York, and Chicago. His sculptures have been acquired by several important art institutions internationally including the Fonds Muncipal d'Art Contemporain, Paris; M+ museum, Hong Kong, Musée Cernuischi, Paris; and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He has lived in Paris since 1984.
