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Sui Jianguo, The Blind, 2010-2014, bronze, 38.5 cm × 15 cm × 13 cm (15-3/16" × 5-7/8" × 5-1/8") © Sui Jianguo

Sui Jianguo

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b. 1956, Qingdao, China

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Sui Jianguo graduated from the Fine Arts Department of the Shandong University of the Arts in 1984, and received his MFA from the Central Academy of Fine Arts Sculpture Department in 1989. He currently lives and works in Beijing. He is a senior professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

According to art critics, Sui Jianguo is regarded as “the earliest Chinese sculptor in conceptualism and the one who went the furthest.”

During his artistic practice for over forty years, Sui Jianguo has unique insight into many facets of artistic exploration, such as creative ideas, form, medium, execution and the expressions of time and space. His sculptures deftly blend concept and form. Many of his works are large-scale and achieve great sensory impact.

Sui Jianguo’s early sculptures were highly semiotic in nature, utilizing many signs that are intimately linked to unique social and historical memories. His art gradually cast off individual identity as his creations entered into a more wider perspective that revealed a cultural exploration of the notions of space and time. Meanwhile, the artist successfully brought sculpture into a total reflection on Chinese modernity. Whether it was his early realist works or his later more classical forms such as “Legacy Mantle” and “Made in China,” his works have sought out problems and paths to their resolution from within China's native knowledge systems and cultural threads. His work has strong intellectual properties that show serious critical views and humanistic leanings. His work also has expanded to include video and public performance. Since 2008, he has gradually shifted the focus of his works to reveal the sensory touch, one that involves modelling clay with his fingers and incorporating 3D scanning and printing techniques.

The artist has taken part in numerous group and solo exhibitions, including Echo of System: Sui Jianguo 1997–2019 in 2019 at Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, System: Sui Jianguo 2008–2018 in 2019 at OCAT Shenzhen, the group exhibition The Allure of: Matter Material art from China in 2019 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Rodin: The Centennial Exhibition in 2017 at Grand Palais, Paris, Sui Jianguo: Blind Portrait in 2014 at Central Park, New York, Sui Jianguo’s Discus Thrower in 2012 at the British Museum, and The Hague Under Heaven: Sui Jianguo Sculpture in 2011 at the Museum Beelden aan Zee, the Blickachsen 9 in Frankfurt in 2013, Reactivation – 9th Shanghai Biennale at Power Station of Art in 2012, the Sculpture Project of the Expo at the World Expo Shanghai 2010, Boulevard Fashion Accidentally in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, in 2007, and Susi: key to Chinese art today, future & fantasy at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila in 2006.

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Sui Jianguo, The Blind #5, 2011, bronze, 18-5/16" x 15-9/16" x 16-7/16" (46.5 cm x 39.6 cm x 41.7 cm), Edition of 3 © Sui Jianguo

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Sui Jianguo, Dream Rock No. 3, 2010, stainless steel, 222 cm x 320 cm x 239 cm (87-3/8" x 126" x 94-1/8") © Sui Jianguo