Vitamin Creative Space

Biography

Born in 1970 in Yangjiang, Guangdong province, where he currently lives and works, Zheng Guogu graduated from the printmaking department at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1992.

Zheng Guogu’s artistic practices utilize a wide range of media in order to express the extensive diversity of the ideas he develops in connection with the processes of life. In 2000, Zheng Guogu initiated The Age Of Empire ( from 2012 onward, he changed the name from The Age of Empire to Liao Garden) , a constantly evolving utopian domain that provides  a setting for his experimentations rooted in Chinese philosophy but anarchistically constructed outside of legal parameters. The project integrates complicated spatial modalities and social relations, which comprise the entire process of dwelling in a physical space, from the conceptual ideal, to the practical implementation, to day-to-day living. In his recent works based on the research on life’s energy, Zheng Guogu tries to reveal the energy flow lurking in the process of perception, the vibration of color frequencies is closely related to the workings of human arteries and veins, as well as the operation of the universe. Furthermore, the vibration is the tempering of an existential insight. Zheng Guogu is also one of the founding members of Yangjiang Group, an artist collective focusing on experimental Chinese calligraphy, founded in 2002 in Yangjiang.

Zheng Guogu’s principal solo exhibitions include: Zheng Guogu: Visionary Transformation, MoMA PS1, New York, 2019; Zheng Guogu: The Winding Path to Trueness, Mirrored Gardens, Guangzhou, 2017; Zheng Guogu: Ubiquitous Plasma, OCAT Xi'an, Xi’an, 2015. He has participated in international exhibitions and bienniales including: The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of  Contemporary Art (APT9), The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Queensland, Australia; Social Factory - 10th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, 2014; Farewell to Post-Colonialism - 3rd Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou, 2008; Documenta 12, Kassel, 2007; Canton Express in Zone of Urgency, 50th Venice Biennale, Venice, 2003.

He received the Best Artist Award by CCAA (Chinese Contemporary Art Awards) in 2006.

Website: zhengguogu.org