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