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The Art of Guo Fengyi

December 12, 2015 - January 31, 2016
Opening Reception: December 12th

Andrew Edlin Gallery is pleased to inaugurate its new space at 212 Bowery with a solo exhibition of drawings by Guo Fengyi (1942-2010). Guo’s work has received worldwide recognition for its towering scale and unique style of drawing—at once diagrammatic and yet distinctly enigmatic. This exhibition is the first comprehensive presentation of the self-taught artist’s work in the United States. The Art of Guo Fengyi is curated by Tina Kukielski in collaboration with Long March Space, Beijing.

Guo first made art in her late 40s after a career in manufacturing that ended abruptly at age 39 due to pain associated with severe arthritis. With time away from the factory she began to study alternative medicine, applying it to alleviate her symptoms. The holistic practice of Qigong with its focus on movement, breathing and meditation gave Guo spiritual direction in both her life and her art. An emerging consciousness about the body—its afflictions and vitalities—sparked illustrious visions that quickly found their way onto the page, first to Guo’s journals and then eventually onto long scrolls of rice paper or cloth, some measuring over 15 feet long.

The hallmarks of Guo’s hypnotic works are the rhythmic, spontaneous, and sinewy lines of colored and black inks, depicting forms and creatures that seem to hover between pattern and line, animal and human, divinity and earthly being, internal and external space. Each work is the result of Guo’s transcendent meditative process that channels and then transcribes the essence of her subjects on-to paper. Guo’s references range from historical or mythic figures from Chinese philosophy like the creation deity Nüwa to popular icons like Santa Claus and the Statue of Liberty, and sometimes include acquaintances and neighbors who once appealed to her spiritual power for medical relief. At times Guo’s works resemble an anatomical dissection of the body’s internal organs and chakras; at other times the work echoes vast energy fields. Guo’s singular bodies begin at the center and move outward, morphing into multiple human forms, then into landscape, and finally into pure states of consciousness.
Guo Fengyi was born in Xi’an in the Shaanxi province in Northwest China. In 2002, she was invited through the Long March Project to collaborate on an exhibition with Judy Chicago in Lugu Lake. Thereafter, Guo’s work began to be seen and better known. Her work was featured in The Encyclopedic Palace (the 55th Venice Biennale, 2013), the 2013 Carnegie International (Pittsburgh), 10000 Lives (the 8th Gwangju Biennial, 2010) and Alternative Guide to the Universe (Hayward Gallery, London, 2013). She was the subject of solo exhibitions, Who is Guo Fengyi? (Vancouver’s Contemporary Art Gallery, 2012), and Guo Fengyi (Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, 2011), and invited into the 2005 International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Prague, the 2005 Yokohama Triennial, and the 2006 Taipei Biennial. Her work has also been shown at the Museum of Every-thing (London, 2009).

Tina Kukielski is an independent curator and writer based in New York City. Her projects include the 2013 Carnegie International and numerous museum exhibitions for both the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art where she formerly held curatorial positions.