LI BANGYAO
b. 1954, ChinaLi Bangyao is one of Chinese contemporary art’s most notable Pop practitioners. In a sense, his thirty-year career in art has reflected the shifts in Chinese modern art from Expressionism to Cubism, from Primitivism to Conceptual Art, and from Process Art to Pop Art. In the 1980s, Li participated in the ‘85 New Wave as a member of the Hubei modern art group Tribe, Tribe. In 1986, Li Bangyao exhibited Mountain Spring, Langya Grass with Langya Grass and People on the Easel, and Accompaniment without Langya Grass at “The First Tribe, Tribe Exhibition” at the Hubei Institute of Fine Arts. His combination of naturalism and symbolism, as well as his interpretation of the relationship between nature and civilization, presented the evolution of humanity from remote antiquity into the future. In 1992, with the development of the market economy in China, Li Bangyao created his career-defining piece Product of Trust, which was shown that same year at the Guangzhou Biennial.
His work has been exhibited at a parallel exhibition for the 2013 Venice Biennale, the Third Shenzhen Biennale of Contemporary Art, the Museu Oscar Niemeyer Curitiba, the Minsheng Art Museum Beijing, the Minsheng Art Museum Shanghai, the Guangdong Museum of Art, the Hubei Museum of Art, the Lingnan Museum of Fine Art, OCAT Shenzhen, the Mingyuan Art Museum Shanghai, and the Base Contemporary Art Museum Suzhou. His work has been collected by institutions and individuals from around the world.
Li Bangyao’s recent solo exhibitions include “Li Bangyao: Forgotten Poems” (Jardin Orange, Shenzhen, 2020), “Indoors History: Li Bangyao” (The Barn Contemporary Art Space, Shenzhen, 2019), ” Li Bangyao: Looking for the Commonplace” (Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art, Guangzhou, 2019), “Indoors: Li Bangyao” (ODRADEK, Brussels, 2017), “Wuxiangzhi; Li Bangyao” (53 Art Gallery, Guangzhou, 2011), “Li Bangyao: The Archeology of Objects” (Deshan Art Space, Beijing, 2008), and “Li Bangyao: The Origin of Species” (Moon Gallery, Hong Kong, 2008).
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