Huang Rui

1952, Beijing China

Introduction

Huang Rui was born in 1952 in Beijing, and is a well known Chinese avant-garde artist and a founding member of the “Star Movement”. This group of artists, numbering at least twenty and including such figures as Ai Weiwei and Wang Keping, were one of the first publically active art groups to protest government censorship following the end of the Cultural Revolution. Before founding the “Stars” group he had at the age of 16 been sent to Inner Mongolia to work as a farmer before returning to Beijing in 1975. The group held one of the first modern art shows in China in 1979 at the China Arts Gallery (now the National Museum of China) in Beijing, which on the third day was shut down by police. In 1984, a year after the group dissolved, Huang immigrated to Japan where he remained until 2000. He returned to China in 2002.

He writes that “in a flash, it has been thirty years since I befriended Mrs. King. In my eyes since the 1990s and into the 21st century, Mrs. King has been a paragon in the Chinese [art] world.” Alisan Fine Arts began representing Huang in 1990 while he was living in Japan, organising a solo exhibition of his abstract oil paintings and mixed media on canvas works in 1991. The gallery also included his artworks in two important group exhibitions Wonders of Chinese Abstraction in 1995, and Chinese Abstraction & Beyond in 1997 held at the Hong Kong Arts Centre.

Huang has held over thirty solo exhibitions and more than a hundred group exhibitions around the world. Recent major exhibitions include The First Guangzhou Triennial at Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou in 2002, Huang Rui: The Stars Times 1977-1984 at He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen in 2007, Christian Dior & Chinese Artists at the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing in 2008, Venice Biennale 2013, Light Before Dawn: Unofficial Chinese Art 1974-1985 at Asia Society Gallery Hong Kong, Agitprop! at Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, and M+ Sigg Collection: Four Decades of Chinese Contemporary Art Hong Kong in 2016. His works have been collected by M+, West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2007

  • Chai-Na (Demolition-here)/China, Les Rencontres Photographiques d’Arles, Arles, France
  • Texts are the Legacy of Great Thought, Chinese Contemporary, New York, USA

2006

  • One Country Two Systems - Unchanged After 50 Years!, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong
  • Chairman Mao 10,000 RMB, Chinese Contemporary, Beijing, China

2000

  • Non-existent Journey III KCAL Kansai Contemporary Art Laboratory, Amagasaki, Osaka, Japan
  • Non-existent Journey IV, Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Osaka, Japan
  • Huang Rui Exhibition, Kaze Gallery, Osaka (also '98,97,95,92,90), Japan

1999

  • Beijing 0:00 [Performance], Wenzi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

1997

  • Huang Rui Exhibition, Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
  • I Ching + Planned Road, Nishetenma Area, Osaka, Japan
  • Huang Rui Exhibition, Bricolage Gallery, Osaka, Japan

1996

  • GoldFish + Planned road, Nishetenma Area, Osaka, Japan

1995

  • Water - Wood - Paper, Ruine der Kunst, Berlin, Germany
  • Huang Rui Exhibition, Gallerie Bellefroid, Paris, France
  • Water + Abenosuji, Abenosuji Gallery, Osaka, Japan
  • Ergoutou Spirit+ Ruins, Guan Yuan area, Beijing, China

1994

  • Huang Rui Exhibition, Kaibundo Gallery, Kobe (also'96), Japan
  • Water + Fish, Huang Rui Studio, Beijing, China
  • Water + Bamboo, Huang Rui Studio, Beijing, China

1993

  • Chairman Mao 100's Anniversary, Ai Weiwei Studio, Beijing, China

1992

  • Huang Rui Exhibition, International Art Museum, Beijing (cancelled), China
  • Water + 40 Faces, September Gallery, Beijing (Cancelled and moved to Self Owned studio, Beijing), China

1991

  • Huang Rui Exhibition, Gallery Ueda, Tokyo (also'94), Japan

1990

  • Huang Rui Exhibition, Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Japan
  • Huang Rui Exhibition, Gallery Kaze, Osaka (also '92,'95,'97,'98,'00), Japan

1986

  • Chinese Modern Art Center, Osaka (also '88,'90','92), Japan
  • Gallery Ueda Warehouse, Tokyo, Japan

1985

  • Tor Road Gallery, Kobe (also '86,'89), Japan

1984

  • Central Gallery, Osaka (also '94), Japan

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018

2007

  • China Action, Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Chinese Performance Art Photography, Inter Gallery, Beijing, China
  • Made in China – Contemporary Art Exhibition, Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark; Israel Museum, Jerusalem

2006

  • China Now, Reincarnation of Chinese Contemporary Art, Sammlung Essl Museum, Vienna, Austria
  • Wilderness Environmental Art Plan, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong
  • 3rd Dashanzi International Art Festival, Soldiers at the Gates - Chai-na (Demolition here)/China, Beijing
  • Dadao International Live Art Festival, 798 Art District, Beijing, China
  • Create History, Commemoration Exhibition of Modern Art in 1980’, Shenzhen Art Museum, China

2005

  • 2nd Dashanzi International Art Festival: Language/Fable, Beijing, China
  • Convergence Art exhibition, Dashanzi Art District, Beijing, China
  • Transparent Box, Jianwai Soho, Beijing, China
  • Cubism Painting in Asia, National Museum of Modern Art of Japan, Tokyo

2004

  • 1st Dashanzi International Art Festival: Radiance and Resonance / Signals of Time, Dashanzi Art District, Beijing, China

2003

  • Transborder Language: Live Poetry/Performance Art, Beijing Tokyo Art Project, Beijing, China
  • Blue Sky Exposure - Anti SARS Exhibition, Dashanzi Art District and Yi Zhuang, Beijing, China
  • Left Hand, Right Hand, Dashanzi Art District, Beijing, China

2002

  • Beijing Afloat, Beijing Tokyo Art Project Opening Exhibition, Beijing, China
  • The 1st Guangzhou Triennale, Guangzhou Museum, Guangzhou, China
  • CIPAF 02, Banpe Museum, Xi'an, China
  • International Contemporary Photograph Exhibition, Ping Yao, China

2001

  • Promenade in Asia AFTER KITCH? Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
  • Dream 2001, Contemporary Chinese Art Exhibition, Red Mansion Foundation, London, UK

2000

  • The Xing Xing 20 years, Tokyo Gallery, Japan
  • Documentation of Chinese Avant-Garde Art in the 90s, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan
  • Choi Suk Ho and Huang Rui, Gallery Gu, Seo-Cho Visual Art Institute, Seoul
  • Battle to 2001, Gozo Yoshimasu and Huang Rui, Gallery Shimada, Kobe, Japan

1999

  • Memories of 100 Years, Huang Rui Studio, Osaka, Japan
  • True, Hirano, Osaka, Japan
  • New I-Ching, 64 Divination of 6.4, Central Park, Hong Kong

1998

  • NIPAF '98 Nippon Performance Art Festival, Nagano etc. (also '99), Japan
  • Huang Rui Exhibition, JF Mayer Gallerie, Marseille, France
  • L'Art Degenere, Gallerie Municipale de Sextius, Aix en Provence, France
  • NIPAF a Paris, Ambassade du Japon en France, Paris, France
  • Art Performance, Art Action, Fringe Club, Hong Kong / Tribo, Macao
  • Today 20 Years; Japan-China International Art Festival, Hamarikyu Aashi Multipurpose Hall, Tokyo, Japan

1997

  • Chinese Abstraction and Beyond, Hong Kong Arts center, Hong Kong
  • Modern de Hirano, Kumata Shino Shrine, Osaka (also '98) , Japan
  • The 4th Rokko Island Water Front Open Air Play, Marine Park, Kobe (also '98, '99, '00)
  • Imaginery trip, Eiji Okubo, Huang Rui, two- person Exhibition, Huang Rui Studio, Osaka, Japan

1996

  • Chinese Modern Arts, Gallery Asur, Oslo, Sweden
  • From East of Eurasia, Oxy Gallery, Osaka, Japan
  • Origin and Myths of Fine New Art from Japan, China, and Korea, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan

1995

  • New Painting of Chinese Artists, Alisan Fine Arts Gallery, Hong Kong

1994

  • The Xing Xing - China Modern Art & Cultural, Kunsterhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt, Germany
  • Asian Art Now, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan

1993

  • The Xing Xing, 15 years, Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

1992

  • Asian Wave, Tokyo Gallery, Japan
  • Art Now, '92; Twelve Artists: New Horizon in the '90s, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Japan

1990

  • Ma Desheng, Huang Rui, Wang Keping three-person exhibition, Han Art Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
  • Huang Rui and Wang Keping two-person exhibition, Monte Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
  • The Xing Xing 10 years, Salpetriere Church, Paris, France

1989

  • The Xing Xing 10 Years, Han-Art Gallery, Hong Kong / Han-Art Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

1987

  • Xing Xing exhibition by 6 artists, Art Wave Gallery, New York, USA
  • Documentation of Xing Xing Exhibition, Harvest University Cultural Center, Boston, USA

1985

  • Ma Desheng and Huang Rui exhibition, Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Osaka, Japan

1983

  • Ma Desheng, Huang Rui, Wang Keping Exhibition, Beijing Elementary School, Beijing, China

1981

  • China Contemporary Art Exhibition, New York, Boston, USA

1980

  • The 2nd Xing Xing Exhibition, China Art Museum, Beijing, China

1979

  • The 1st Xing Xing Exhibition, outside of the China Art Museum and Hua Fang Zhai Gallery, Beijing, China

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2004    798 in Beijing, Timezone 8 + Thinking Hands
2005    Language/Fable, Timezone 8 + Thinking Hands
2006    Beijing / Background, Timezone 8 + Thinking Hands
2007    798 in Beijing, New Edition, Timezone 8 + Thinking Hands