Born in 1960 Hangzhou, Luo Qi is a founder and leading figure of the post-modern calligraphy movement Calligraphyism, formed in Mainland China in the 1980s. This group of Chinese artists attempts to transform Chinese calligraphy into a contemporary idiom, challenging its aesthetic style and semantic function. He graduated from the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou in 1986, having majored in etching, before working as a lecturer at the same academy. In 2001, he won the painting award at the Third Florence International Contemporary Art Biennial. He was also a finalist at The First Ten Years: Chinese Contemporary Art Documentary Exhibition, and won the Contemporary International Art Award at the Fujisan International Ink Painting Exhibition in Japan in 2004. He was appointed Director of the Calligraphyism Art Institute in Hangzhou in 2009, and established the Luo Qi International Contemporary Art Museum in Zhejiang in 2013. Lars Berglund writes that the artist "never abandons his heritage in calligraphy and ink painting... he still maintains that the ideas behind his abstract works are purely Chinese."
Read MoreHe has had numerous major exhibitions across the globe, including in the United States, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, China, and Hong Kong. His work was also included in the important modern calligraphy exhibition Writing Non-writing at the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou in 2015. Alisan Fine Arts held solo exhibitions for Luo Qi in 2004, 2006 and 2009, and exhibited his works in the group show Tracing the Brush: Transformed Text at Ink Asia 2015. His works have been collected by The Rubin-Frankel Gallery, Boston University; Yale University Art Gallery; Cleveland Public Library; University of Genoa; Malmö Modern Art Museum; Lund University, Sweden; National Museum of History and Art, Luxembourg.
