Gu Xiong is an internationally acclaimed Canadian artist best known for his multi-media works exploring cultural hybridity, politics, geography, economics and issues facing our emerging global identity. His provocative painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, installation and performance art have earned him a reputation as one of this country’s elite contemporary artists.

Gu Xiong was born in 1953 in Chongqing, Sichuan, in the Peoples Republic of China. During his childhood he developed a strong appreciation for art and was encouraged by his teacher parents to follow his creative dreams. In 1972, as part of chairman Mao Tse-tung’s “Cultural Revolution” he was separated from his family and sent to the countryside to labour on a farm. While “in exile” he realized his true calling and developed his vision and soul as an artist. After the death of Mao in 1976, he returned to the city as a factory worker and in 1978, entered the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute to pursue his dream of being an artist and teacher. He specialized in printmaking, received an MFA in 1985 and immediately became a drawing instructor at the Sichuan Institute. Gu Xiong was also a central figure in China’s pro-democracy Avant Garde art movement and was witness to the Tiananmen tragedy in Beijing.

Following guest residencies (arranged by Alvin Balkind) at the Banff School of Fine Arts in 1986 and 1987, he emigrated to Canada and settled in Vancouver with dreams of continuing his art and teaching career in a country where artistic and intellectual freedom is encouraged. Life wasn’t easy for the new Canadian. While continuing to create art and exhibit internationally, he worked as a bus boy at the UBC student cafeteria, became a printmaking technician in the Fine Arts department and taught sessional drawing courses at the Emily Carr College of Art. Following more than ten years of rebuilding his teaching career, he is now an Associate Professor in the UBC Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory.

Gu Xiong has an impressive and lengthy exhibition history. He has participated in more than 100 group and solo exhibitions including the prestigious Shanghai Biennale in 2004. His work is collected by the the China National Museum of Fine Arts in Beijing, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Vancouver Art Gallery and of course the Artists for Kids Gallery in North Vancouver, BC. Gu Xiong’s work is also found in numerous private and public collections including a special commission created for Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington.