Child’s Play: Recent Paintings by Guo Jin opens May 15, 2009.
“Childhood dreams gave us a carefree imagination through which we can still return to find the pure and secure place already forgotten about a long time ago. In circumstances within which pragmatism is growing by the day, idealism is becoming a hopeless illusion. We must try to pick this up again from an aesthetic angle. Idealism becomes its own myth. Let us try our best to retrieve the beauty of the idealism that we were unaware of but that we once had.
I am the one, who believes in the co-existence of the ideal and illusions; I believe it to be very real. I take this as my starting point. to me, my work is a form of sustenance or perhaps a kind of inexplicable puzzle that perpetually illuminates my heart. The destination of my art lies not as its conclusion like poems of imagery in which beauty is learned through a process. My paintings are a kind of prompt for society, detailed inquiries into the truth through which one may catch a glimpse of the indistinct and irregular beauty in life.
The purpose of adopting the subject “children”, is to borrow its ideal meaning of what i think childish, sincere and illusionary and to put in an element of “time and space” deliberately when handling with special techniques, to create a “distance”, a distance with the reality, a “distance” with time and space. When humans are placed in a weightless state, the sensuous delight such as swinging, jumping and sliding, which results from an uncontrollable situation, is just my understanding of idealism.
-Guo Jin
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Selected Exhibitions
2008
-Face and Faces, Dolores de Sierra Gallery, Madrid, Spain
-Appearance, Guo Jin from 1992-2007 solo exhibition, Museum National, Jakarta, Indonesia
2007
-From New Figurative Image to New Painting, Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2006
-Solo Show, Serieuze Zaken Studio, Amsterdam, Netherlands
-12345, Yibo gallery, Shanghai, China
-Action and imagination, solo show, Serieuze Zaken Studioos, Amsterdam
-The Naked Truth, Tang Gallery, Bangkok
2005
-The Review, LA TIMES Gallery, Los Angeles
2004
-Chinart, Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome
-Chinart, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
-Shaping, Yibo Gallery, Shanghai
-In Between, Tang Gallery, Bangkok
2003
-Chonqing Chilies, Ohio University Art Gallery & Trisolini Gallery
2003
-Solo Exhibition, Chinese Contemporary, London
2002
-The Paintings of Guo Wei and Guo Jin, Goedhuis Contemporary, New York
-CHINaRT,Museum Kuppersmuhle Sammlung Grothe,Duisburg
-Guo Jin and Guo Wei: New Works, The Courtyard Gallery, Beijing
-Triennial of Chinese Arts, Guang Zhou Art Museum, China
2001
-The First Biennale of Chengdu, Monden Art Museum, Chengdu
2000
-New Works: Guo Wei and Guo Jin, The Courtyard Gallery, Beijing
1999
-Solo Exhibition, Chinese Contemporary, London
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
The Estella Collection, New York, USA;
Casa Garden Orient Foundation, Macau, China;
Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, Singapore;
Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China;
Upriver Art Gallery, Chengdu, China;
Dongyu Art Gallery, Shenyang, China;
Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur. Bonn, Germany;
The Olenska Foundation, Geneva, Swiss;
Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
EDUCATION
1990
Graduated from Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, oil painting department
1990-present
Tutor at Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Chongqing
