Wang Huangsheng’s (b. 1956, China) work is held in many international collections such as the V & A, London, Uffizi Gallery, Florence and the National Art Museum of China, Beijing. In addition to being a prominent artist, he is also one of the most influential figures in the art world of China and the most important supporter of Chinese avant-garde art. He is currently the Director of the CAFA Museum in Beijing, a highly significant art space and former Director of the Guangdong Museum of Art.
Wang Huangsheng was immersed in the arts from a young age, his father, a Literati painter and calligrapher, passed on skills rooted in tradition. As a teenager during the Cultural Revolution he accompanied his father who was sent to the countryside, and it was here his first resource as an artist began; his father teaching him the unique language of traditional poetry and painting. Moving to Beijing at the end of the Cultural Revolution, a time of radical change, Wang Huangsheng was acquainted with poets such as Bei Dao, pulling him into an engagement and participation with intellectuals at the time. These two stages of his life, Wang Huangsheng has commented, have shaped his profession and practice. Also formally trained, he obtained his Masters in Art History from the Nanjing Art Institute in 1990 and he subsequently received his Doctorate in 2006.
Wang Huangsheng realises his artistic expression across various media from light installations to sculpture but primarily through ink and pen on canvas or paper. Wang’s artwork has been included in major national exhibitions, such as The Eighth National Art Exhibition, The Ninth National Art Exhibition, Major Exhibition of Traditional Chinese Painting in 20th Century and Major exhibition of Chinese Art.
