Guo Fengyi articulated a particular journey of spiritual and metaphysical significance belonging to an older generation whose embrace of Chinese folk culture imparts a unique knowledge of history, myth, and mystery. Her works on paper are composed of finely controlled brushwork that blends and weaves into a composition of lustrous images, suggesting both human figures and otherworldly beings.

The subject matter of her works, as well as the concepts and physical structures she used, came from traditional Chinese systems of thought such as cosmology, acupuncture energy maps, divination, sage kings, geomancy and dynastic grave sites – all of which have become dispensable in a modernizing China. Through her works, Guo Fengyi acted as a convergence point of traditional and contemporary thought, preserving cultural memories hidden deep within Chinese society. Through the physical act of drawing, Guo Fengyi infused the events of today’s world with profound significance, both as an act of creativity as well as an act of everyday life.
 

Guo Fengyi

Guo Fengyi (1942–2010, Xi’an, China) was a self-trained female artist. She began practicing Qigong (a traditional Chinese health maintenance practice that cultivates the qi energy within the body) as a way to alleviate illness. Accompanying her ever-deepening study into the philosophies of mysticism, she began having powerful visions that she felt compelled to give form to through drawing, as a way to adjust the balance between her body and her spiritual world.

Guo Fengyi’s first foray into the contemporary art world was her participation in the Long March: A Walking Visual Display in 2002. Her selected solo exhibitions include: Guo Fengyi: Cosmic Meridians, Long March Space, Beijing (2023); To See from a Distance, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, USA (2020); This Too Is Guo Fengyi, KWM artcenter, Beijing (2020); To See from a Distance, The Drawing Center, New York, USA (2020), etc. She had participated in important biennial/triennial exhibitions such as the 2nd Prague International Biennale of Contemporary Art (2005), the 2nd Yokohama International Triennale (2005), the 55th Venice Biennale (2013), the 56th Carnegie International (2013), the 7th Asian Art Biennial (2019), and the 13th Shanghai Biennale (2021).
 

Lender: Long March Space, Beijing