Beijing Dangdai Art Fair

Guo Hongwei named his latest paintings as Petrographic Film, acontinuation of his series Painting is Collecting. He views minerals asthe movies of the universe, discovering their mysteries akin to a cosmicconnection.

As a painter, Guo Hongwei’s primary work involves exploring whetherhumans can see the truth of the world. He has copied old childhood photosto question the reality of memory, and he has also used natural historyimagery to study the order of things. In recent years, he has been fascinatedby the singing and dancing crowds in parks, and villagers picking wildvegetables in green belts. He attempts to find a spiritual path through thesepeople and to reopen the closed and suffocating city life.

Guo Hongwei’s solo project at Beijing Contemporary is titled Follow theNature, pointing to a sense of freedom beyond the mundane. He revisitsancient mystical cosmology, the pareidolia in psychology, and the aestheticappreciation of scholar’s rocks by traditional literati. Ultimately, he recalls hischildhood obsession with mineral samples at the geological bureau wherehis father worked.

The paintings in this exhibition are all illusions based on real minerals,simultaneously expressing the stunning beauty of nature and the boundlessimagination of humans. Before the landscape of an AI-fed society takesshape, these illusions remind us not to overly pursue the meaning of images.What is important is that nature is the source of life’s miracles.

One day, Guo Hongwei had a sudden inspiration and wrote:

In images, the eternal leap of meaning proves that representation is natural,and nature is representation. Is it a miracle to see a non-existent image? It isthe nearsightedness of the soul. Miracles occur not in opposition to nature,but in opposition to our understanding of nature.

About the Artist

Guo Hongwei (1982, Sichuan) graduated from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in2004 and currently lives and works in Beijing. His practice focus on painting,collage and video. From 2011 to 2016, he established independent art space”Gland”.

The artist’s solo exhibitions include Guo Hongwei: The Place of Liveness ,Magician Space, Beijing, CN (2021); Guo Hongwei: Pareidolia , ChambersFine Art, New York, US (2020); Happy Hours , DRC No.12, Beijing, CN (2019);Plastic Heaven , Chambers Fine Art, New York, US (2017); Miss Oyu , FriezeNew York, New York, US (2014); Guo Hongwei: Editing, Leo Xu Projects,Shanghai, CN (2013).

Group exhibitions include: Shanshui: Echoes and Signals , M+, Hong Kong,CN (2023); 2022 BEIJING BENNIAL, Friendship Art Community, Beijing,CN (2022); The Language of Mashrooms: The Interspecies Internet ,Contemporary Gallery Kunming, Yunnan, CN (2022); The Racing willContinue, the Dancing will Stay, Times Museum, Guangzhou, CN (2019);Silent Transformation: Traditional Medical Culture in Ancient Texts and itsSubtle Influence in Contemporary Art & Life, Sichuan Provincial Library,Chengdu, CN (2019); Yebisu International Festival for Art & AlternativeVisions, Yebisu Garden Place, Tokyo, JP (2016); My Generation: YoungChinese Artists, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA, US(2015); Tampa Museum of Art & Museum of Fine Arts , St. Petersburg;Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, US (2014); Jing Shen: The Actof Painting in Contemporary China, Padiglione d’arte Contemporanea, Milan,IT (2015); ON | OFF: China’s Young Artists in Concept and Practice , UCCA,Beijing, CN (2013); Reactivation: The 9th Shanghai Biennale , PSA, Shanghai,CN (2012).

His works are collected by M+, LACMA, White Rabbit Gallery, etc.