Arriving in Australia in 1992, GUO JIAN's art practice has been fuelled by his position as a reflective, sharply satirical Chinese expatriate who grew up during the Cultural Revolution and under a deeply communist regime. Guo Jian’s early experiences of art were inevitably entwined with communist authority, ideology and militaristic power - his first acquaintance with art was time spent as a propaganda-poster painter for the People’s Liberation Army then later, as an art student in Beijing, he took part in the protests which led to the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

Guo Jian takes the Socialist Realism he grew up with in China, subverts and transforms it, often humorously, into Socio-Realism in an almost celebratory act of protest and liberation. His flat surfaces and heightened colours owe much to the Chinese visual and political language of the Communist era. Dancing girls in dressed in traditional ballet costumes or in uniforms with weapons are either placed in the foreground with soldiers leering (usually in disquieting repetition of Guo Jian’s own face) or in the background as a lingerie-clad model straight out of a Western fashion magazine poses in the foreground; a contrast of unrestricted sexuality and enforced conformity. The Western woman is a temptation, a siren and a subversive outsider in scenes such as Untitled #1 (2006) and Untitled #5 (2005). Underlying conflicting themes of sex and violence, East and West are dominant forces in Jian’s works. Soldiers are captivated and awestruck by female performers, sometimes in quiet contemplation, sometimes in overly excited wonderment, but a sense of false happiness, hypocrisy and hysteria often pervade the scenes.

Guo Jian’s most recent series (2009) has continued this concern of contrast and comparisons between the East and West. Taking iconic photographs from history of famous Hollywood femme fatales visiting US troops in war zones, including Marilyn Monroe, Scarlett Johansson and Mariah Carey, Guo Jian repaints them in photoreal precision with great attention to detail. Jian erases some figures and inserts himself as a People’s Liberation Army soldier amongst a group of US Marines, or in the case of No. a (2009) where Monroe is photographed singing to the 3rd U.S. Infantry Division in Korea in 1954, Guo Jian substitutes the American soldiers with the green and red uniformed soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army. Jian’s manipulation as he inserts himself wearing the red star cap into a grinning group posing with Monroe or bikini girls is highly illusionary and playful. As one Chinese soldier reads The Little Red Book and an American soldier reads Maxim besides each other in No. g (2009), Jian seems to challenge the ideologies behind both cultures and countries. Guo Jian is an artist who revels in juxtapositions and the search for identity: ‘Put your feet into someone else’s shoes to think about the world and your own life differently. For me, if the surroundings change, are combined, are old or new, it doesn’t matter.’

View Guo Jian's website

1994-95
Residency in Beijing, in collaboration with Yuan Ming Yuan Artist’s Village.

1992
Migrated to Sydney, Australia.

1989
Resident & Artist, Yuan Ming Yuan Artist’s Village, Beijing.
Rejected job placement in countryside after participation in the 1989 hunger strike, Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

1985-89
Studied at the Art Department of the Central Minorities Institute, Beijing

1983-85
Cadre in transport company Union

1979-83
Soldier & Squad leader, People’s Liberation Army and Military Artist

1978-79
Truck driver

2017
The Encroachment, ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne

2012
Guo Jian, Burwood Gallery, Sydney

2010
The Cast And Crew, 4A Center for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney

2009
New Works by Guo Jian, ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne

2007
New Works by Guo Jian, Galerie Anne Lettree, Paris, France.

2006
New Works by Guo Jian, ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne

2005
New Works by Guo Jian, Milchael Reid Art Dealer, Sydeny

2002
Bubbles of Yum, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney

2001
Mama’s Trippin’, Heidi Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, Australia

2000
Mama’s Trippin, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Gorman House, Canberra.

1999
Trigger Happy, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, Australia

1998
Double Happiness is a Warm Gun, Tin Sheds Gallery, University of Sydney, Australia

1994
Little Bastards, Headspace Gallery, Sydney

2018
Chindia, Carnival of the Bold, Gaffa Gallery, Sydney. 2016 Refugees, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney.
Heavy Atillery, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney.

2015
A Russian, A Chinese, A Cuban, walk into an art show, Aluna Art Foundation, Miami.
Temporary Autonomous Zones, MOCA, North Miami, USA.

2014
The Frist China - Czech Contemporary Art Exhibition, Zhongjie Art Gallery, Songzhuang, Beijing, China.

2013
The First China - ASEAN Art Biennale, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang, China.
We: 1994 – 2013 – The 20th Anniversary Collective Exhibition of China Songzhuang Artists, Songzhuang Art Gallery, Beijing China.
Not A Stranger, 2013 China Songzhuang Foreign Artists Works Show, Songzhuang Huandao Gallery, Beijing China

2012
First Contemporary Art Show Of Weibo, Songzhuang Art Gallery, Songzhuang Art Colony, Beijing China
Today, Songzhuang Four Times Art Museum, Beijing China

2010
DHZ (dehistoricalised zone), Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
2010 Crossover, Songzhuang Art Festival - Australian part, Beijing, China

2009
The China Project, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia.

2008
From MAO TO NOW, Armory Gallery, Sydney Australia.
50X50 SUMMER SHOW, ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
Songzhuang Dreamtime, Songzhuang, Beijing China.
Chinese Voices Chinese Stories, OSAGE, Hong Kong.
China Southern Skies, Chinese Artists in Australia, The Australian Embassy, Beijing. The Converted image, DAX Art Space, Beijing, China.
China Project, Galeriaomr O M R, Mexico City, Mexico.

2007
Backbone Strength, Arts Mansion, Beijing, China.

2005
Winter at Arc One Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

2004
ARTV, Australian Centre for the Moving lmage & SBS, Melbourne, Australia.
Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. 2003 Liverpool Art Prize, Liverpool, NSW, Australia.
Bendigo Art Prize, Bendigo, Vic, Australia.
Group Show, January, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, Australia. 2002 Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
The Year in Art exhibition, S H Ervin Gallery, Sydney, Australia. 2000 Australian Drawing Biennale, Drill Hall, ANU, Canberra, Australia.
Contemporary Australian Art, Musee de Picardie, Amiens, France.
Thinking aloud...a drawing show, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, Australia. Chinese Australian Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia. Beyond China, Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia.

1997
3 x 3 Demonstration Art, Sydney, Australia.

1996
3 x 3 (video), touring Berlin, Germany & Auckland, New Zealand. 1992 Yuanmingyan Artists Exhibition, Brussels Art Gallery, Belgium.
Forest Art Exhibition, Beijing, China.

1991
Yuanmingyuan Art, Goethe Institute, Dayuan Guesthouse, Beijing, China.
Studio 149, Yuan Ming Yuan, Beijing, China.

1990
Paintings of Guo Jian and Zhang Ge, Beijing Art Gallery & Beijing Friendship Hotel, Beijing, China.

1988
China Central Minorities Institute Selection, China Art Gallery, Beijing.

1981
Provincial Military Art Exhibition, Yunan, China.

2003
1st Prize, Liverpool Arts Prize, Casula Powerhouse, Australia.

2000
1st Prize, Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize, Campbelltown City Art Gallery, Australia.

2000-06
Visible Arts Foundation Installation Art Project, Republic Tower, Melbourne, Australia

2000-04
Big Day Out, Trigger Happy, used as backdrop for main stage of festival.

2003
Gilberson – Revolution, Artwork used as the backdrop and theme of the band’s music video clip.

Australian Centre on China in the World
Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery, Australia.
Casula Powerhouse, Livepool, Sydney, Australia.
Global Resources, Los Angeles, USA.
Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Brisbane, Australia
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia.
White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia.
Private collections in China, Hong Kong, Mexico, Sweden, Belgium, France, New Zealand, Australia and USA.

2002
Verrall, Jennifer, The Big Picture, The Age, 6 February 2002.
Hynes, Victoria, Brash Strokes, SMH Metro, May 3-9, 2002.
McDonald, John, Bubbles of Yum, The World of Antiques & Art, July – December, 2002 McDonald.
McDonald, John, The Cultural Revolution, December 2002.

2001
Timms, Peter, Of Politics & Impotent Despair, The Australian February 2001.
Ward, Peter, Tribute to a State of Grapes, The Australian, 5th October, 2001.
Wu Hung (Editor), Chinese Art at the Crossroads: Between Past and Future, Between East and West, New Art Media, 2001.
Jaivin, Linda and Nicholas Jose, Guo Jian, Mama’s Trippin’, catalogue, Canberra Contemporary Artspace.
Jackson, Davina, Ritual Laughter, The Australian, 5 October, 2001.
Svendesn, Ingrid, Art that Stops Traffic, 2001.

2000
Author not sited, Drawing Biennale at Drill Hall, ANU Reporter, Vol.31 No. 17, 15 December, 2000.
Barron, Sonia, Broad Spectrum, The Canberra Times, 2nd December, 2000. Cerabona, Ron, Vision of Liberation & Subversion, (Canberra Publication), October 2000.
Grishin, Sasha, Trip Through Vibrant View of Subversion, The Canberra Times, 27 September 2000.
Mordue, Mark, Mao Now, Madison Magazine, USA, August 2000.
Mordue, Mark, Red Light, HQ Magazine, July 2000.
Style Set Warms to Summer Show, The Sunday Telegraph, p. 23, July 2000. Skillbeck, Ruth, Guo Jian ..., Black and White Magazine, March 2000.

1999
Smee, Sebastian, Mad, Bad and Hilarious to Know, SMH, December 11, 1999 Smee, Sebastian, Grotesque Ire, Metro, SMH, December 11, 1999.
Taylor, Jarrad, Asian Artists in Australia, Australian Connections, October 1999. Taylor, Joni, More than Mao, City Hub Arts, 9 December 1999.

1998
Auty, Giles, Beyond the Crange, Review, The Australian 25 April 1998.
Benocchio, Benjamin, Home and Away, SMH, March 27, 1998.
Beyond China, Exhibition catalogue, Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery 1998. Grishin, Sasha, Unfettered Creativity a Boon, City Times, 30 March 1998.
Liu, Halou, Dong Hua Shibao, 21 September 1998.
John, After the Party, Spectrum Arts, SMH, 2nd May 1998.
Sarzin, Anna, Exorcising Chinese Demons from an Artist’s Soul, Uni of Sydney, News 8 October, 1998.
Zhu Dake, Excitement: Guo Jian and His Paintings, 24 September 1998.