Wang Keping is a sculptor born in 1949 in Beijing, who currently lives and works in Paris. In 1979, Wang Keping was one of the founding member of the first non-conformist artist's group in China, «The Stars» (Xing Xing), together with Huang Rui, Ma Desheng, Li Shuang, Ai Weiwei, setting the stage for avant-garde art in China.

 


Wang's unique wooden sculptures, including one that featured a Buddha-like Mao figure, shock the art world in Beijing in the late 70s and early 80s. Wang Keping continues to create these signature sculptures that juxtapose vivid emotion with a marked sense of introversion. Wang is particularly interested in exploring and negotiating the possibilities of rendering the female body. Visually informed by an amalgamation of prehistoric ice-age statuettes and 20th century artists like Constantin Brancusi, he carves heavy thighs, enormous breasts and bulbous buttocks. This eroticism is countered by the solitary tone of these sculptures, as stoic and as subtly abstracted, as a Totem. His figures are of a powerful vividness although they also have a touch of melancholy. Many of the pieces show strangely torn, twisted and distorted shapes. Some seem to have lost limbs, lack eyes or mouths or have over-dimensional genitals. But there are also restrained and subtly abstracted forms in the same vein as Masque or Totem.

 

 



Historical Shows

2007
Origin Point, The Stars group retrospective exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

1980

Authorized exhibition by the Stars group at the National Art Museum, Beijing, China

1979

Unauthorised exhibition by the Stars group of artists on the fence of the National Art Museum, Beijing, China

 

Selected Solo Shows

2014
Wang Keping, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing, China

2011

Wang Keping ? All Smiles, Galerie Magda Danysz, Paris, France and Magda Danysz Gallery, Shanghai, China

2010

La Chair des forêts, Musée Zadkine, Paris, France

2008

He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China

1997

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

1994

Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt, Germany

1993

Aidekman Arts Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Chinese Modern Art Center, Osaka, Japan

1989

Museum of Modern Art, Taizhong, Taïwan

 

Selected Group Shows

2016
Knock on wood, Galerie Magda Danysz, Paris, France

2015

Vide et Plein, Maison Bleu Studio, Paris, France

2014

Insight, Magda Danysz Gallery, Shanghai, China
Art and Fashion, Magda Danysz Gallery, Shanghai, China

2013

Xing Xing : Wang Keping & Ma Desheng, Galerie Magda Danysz, Paris, France
Et la Chine s?est éveillée?, Chapelle de la Visitation espace d?art contemporain, Thonon-les-Bains, France

2012

Overlook, Magda Danysz Gallery, Shanghai, China

2011

Light Before Dawn, Asia Society Hong Kong touring to Houston, Texas, USA
Blooming in the Shadows, Unofficial Chinese Art (1974-1985), Chinese Institute in America, New York, NY, USA
Artistes Chinois à Paris, Musée Cernuschi, Paris, France
Lines & Figures : Conversations, Shangri-La Hotel, Paris, France

2008

China Gold, l?Art contemporain chinois, Musée Maillol, Paris, France
Go China ? Writing on the Wall, Chinese New Realism and Avant-Garde in the eighties and nineties, Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands

2007

China Contemporary Art : the long march of the Avant-Garde, Contemporary Art Museum, Genova, Switzerland

2006

China Onward, The Estella Collection, Chinese Contemporary Art 1966-2006, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhague, Denmark

2005

Mahjong - Chinesische Gegenwartskunst aus der Sammlung Sigg, Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland
The 2nd Annual China International Gallery Exhibition 2005, Beijing, China
 
2004
Chine, le corps partout ?, Museum of Contemporary Art, Marseille, France

2001
China without borders, Goedhuis Contemporary, Sotheby?s, New York, NY, USA

2000

Le corps morcelé, Fondation d?art contemporain Daniel et Florence Guerlain, Les Mesnuls, France
At the New Century, 1979-1999, China's Contemporary Art Works, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chengdu, China

1999

Les Champs de la Sculpture, Champs Elysées, Paris, France
The Pu-Yeo International Modern Sculpture Symposium, Korea

1998

Vision 2000, Chinesische Gemälde und Skulpturen der Gegenwart, Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, Germany

1997

National Museum of Fine Arts, Beijing, China

1996

Face à l?Histoire, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

1992

Sculptures - Frédéric Bleuet, Peter Briggs, Wang Keping, Hôtel de Ville, Paris, France

1989

Tian an Men, 4 June - 4 December: Don't Forget Me, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

1988

International Sculpture Exhibition, Olympic Games, Seoul, South Korea

1983

Painting the Chinese Dream. Chinese Art 30 Years after the Revolution, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY, USA