LUO QI

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.”