Wang Yigang

Wang Yigang's abstract paintings begin with the physical act of painting. Colour, bodily gesture and the changing behaviour of materials shape a process open to chance. Sweeps, interruptions and accumulated marks retain the energy of their making, with the image emerging through the interaction of body, materials and space. His work draws attention to painting as an event as well as a finished surface.

Born in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, in 1961, Wang graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in 1986. He formerly served as a professor and master's supervisor at the academy and as director of its art museum. His exhibitions include a 2010 retrospective of abstract work at Today Art Museum in Beijing and a 2023 solo exhibition at Chengdu Art Museum.

Paintings

Education and Training

1986Graduated from the Oil Painting Department, Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Career

2012Appointed Distinguished Research Fellow at the Creation and Research Center, Chinese National Academy of Arts.
1986Assigned to Shenyang Normal Institute.
UndatedFormer Professor (Level III) and master’s supervisor, Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts.
UndatedFormer Director, Art Museum of Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts.
UndatedMember of the Curatorial Committee, China Artists Association.

Solo Exhibitions

2026"Where Matter Flows", Art Vega Gallery, Sicily, Italy
2026"Decentralised Gesture", Scieppan Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2026"No. 19 Sanhao Street", Hongmei Fermentation Art Center, Shenyang, China
2026"OTHER POWER", Shun Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2025"Air Can - Pigment ICU", Huaqi Art Museum, Shenyang, China
2024"The Praise of Colour", Lattuada Gallery
2023"The Paper", Han Jian Art Museum, Beijing, China
2023"Abstract and Conceptual Body Behavior and Postmodernity", Chengdu Art Museum, Chengdu, China
2022"Plastic Dynamics", Ca’ d’Oro Gallery, New York, USA
2021"Right Now", Gao’s Gallery
2020"Connection Impulse", Martinelli Art Gallery, Italy
2019"Wang Yigang", Soka Gallery, Beijing, China
2019"Chaos", A Gallery, Hong Kong, China
2019"Wang Yigang", LDV Gallery, Locarno, Switzerland
2018"Wang Yigang Recent Works", Mark Borghi Gallery, New York, USA
2018"Out of Nothing", Yibo Gallery, Shanghai, China
2018"Beyond Abstraction", Loftyart Gallery, Taipei
2017"Through Color", Brun Gallery, London, UK
2017"Detached Abstract", Space Station, Beijing, China
2017"Through Color", Absolut Art Gallery, Switzerland
2017"Selfless State", Villa Friede Art Museum, Bonn, Germany
2017"Sparks of Passion", Sai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2016"Flow", Chenaux Gallery, Paris, France
2016"Croire ses yeux", Centre Artasia, Paris, France
2016"Anti-Abstraction: A New Method Established through Description, Process and Body Painting", Xi’an Art Museum, Xi’an, China
2013"Nothing About Distance", Jolie Art Gallery, Shenyang, China
2012"Between Color and Mood", Soka Art Center, Beijing, China
2010"From the West to the East", Huashan Culture Park, Taipei
2010"The Abstract Works Retrospective of Wang Yigang", Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2008"This Is Not Chinese Landscape", Singapore
2008"From Vague Vision to This Is Not Chinese Landscape", Hwa’s Gallery, Shanghai, China
2007"We Are All Responsible", Shanghai, China
2007"Made in America", Cheng Xindong Art Space, Beijing, China
2007"The Time and the Place", Art Gallery of the University of Maryland, USA
2004"Chinese Landscape", Double Vision Gallery, California, USA
2003"Growing Up Under the Red Flag", Double Vision Gallery, California, USA

Group Exhibitions

2026"The Discourse of Matter: An Explorative Exhibition on Painting Materials and Language in Painting", National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
2026"Enigmatic Images & Cryptic Language", Epoch Art Museum, Wenzhou, China
2026"Similar but Distinct: An Invitational Exhibition of Abstract Painting", Wu Guanzhong Art Museum, Yixing, China
2025"The Shape of Thought: A Discourse Exploration of Chinese Oil Painting in the New Era", Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou, China
2025"Century of Chinese Abstraction", Zhizhuwang Art Center, Shunde, Guangdong, China
2025"Honoring the Spirit: Homage to the Classics - A National Exhibition of Xieyi Art", National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
2025"After Conceptual Art: Stylistic Shifts in Abstraction and Chinese Contemporary Art", Songzhuang Contemporary Art Documentation Center, Beijing, China
2024"Urban Fluid", Wuhan Biennale, Wuhan, China
2024"B2Z: Wang Yigang and JonOne Dialogue Exhibition", Wuhan SKP, Wuhan, China
2023"Chinese Expressionism", Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2023"China Kaleidoscope", Avellino Irpino Art Museum, Italy
2021"Invisible Reality", Hongmei Art Museum, Shenyang, China
2021"The Superiority of the Invisible", Galerie Frank Schlag & Cie, Essen, Germany
2021Chengdu Biennale, Tianfu Art Museum, Chengdu, China
2020"Chinese Expressionism", Shanghai, China
2019"Exhibition of Abstract Art by Artists from Both Sides of the Taiwan Strait", Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taipei
2019"The Other Shore: Weihai Marine Oil Painting Masters Exhibition", Weihai Marine Art Museum, Weihai, China
2019"Attraction", Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, China
2018"Chinese Spirit: The Fourth China Oil Painting Exhibition", Beijing, China
2018"New Xieyi", Cui Zhenkuan Art Museum, Xi’an, China
2018"Serious Rebel", Mofeimo Gallery, Qingdao, China
2018"The Possibility of Chinese Abstract Painting in China", Yuan Art Museum, Chongqing, China
2017"Chinese Spirit: The Fourth China Oil Painting Exhibition", Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2017"Abstraction and Post-Abstraction", Zhi Space, Chongqing, China
2017Anren Biennale, Anren, Sichuan, China
2017"Blue", Lanan Gallery, Shenzhen, China
2017"Brotherhood and Menhood", Zoomart Museum, Beijing, China
2017"Vision: The Vocabulary of Abstract Art", Sichuan Art Museum, Chengdu, China
2017"Transcendental Performance", Baijiahu Art Museum, Nanjing, China
2017"The Power of Art Academies: Visual Art", Yi Kang Space, Hohhot, China
2016"Over-Painting: Negotiating the Dilemma of Contemporary Art", White Box Art Museum, Beijing, China
2016"Contemporary Chinese Painting on Paper", The Waterfront Gallery, London, UK
2016"Abstract China 2016", Mingyuan Museum, Shanghai, China
2016"The Working Non-Figurative System", Right View Museum, Beijing, China
2016"The Age of the Bards: Poetry in Contemporary Chinese Art", J&Z Gallery, Shenzhen, China
2016Abstract Art Research Exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2015"Art History in Reverse: Another Thread in Chinese Contemporary Art", Yili Art Museum, Beijing, China
2015"Abstraction and Artistic Conception", Binfen Art Museum, Beijing, China
2015Post-Academy Academic Research Exhibition, Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou, China
2014"1960", Springs Center of Art, Beijing, China
2013"Voice of the Unseen", parallel exhibition, Venice, Italy
2012The Fourth Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
2012"The Shape of the Formless: Chinese Contemporary Art", Carl Shute Arts Center, Germany
2012"At the Present Times: Biennale of Chinese Oil Painting", National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
2012"A Shift in Paradigms of Meaning in Contemporary Art", Blue Roof Museum, Chengdu, China
2011"Commemoration: The Tenth Anniversary of Soka Art", Soka Art Center, Beijing, China
2011"Ruins: The Face of Contemporary Northeast China", Soka Art Center, Beijing, China
2010"Reconstruction: Top Exhibition of Chinese Abstract Art", Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, China
2010"To Transform History: New Art in China, 2000-2009", Beijing International Convention Center, Beijing, China
2010"Chineseness: 2010 Contemporary Art Research Documentation Exhibition", True Color Museum, Suzhou, China
2009"Collision: Cases of Chinese Contemporary Art Experiments", Art Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
2009"Mix: Sino-French Contemporary Art", Shenyang, China
2008"Abstraction and Modernity", Deshan Art Gallery, Beijing, China
2008"Violation of the Rule", Long March Space, Beijing, China
2007Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition, Seoul, South Korea
2007"Coexistence of Multiple Art Forms: A China-Korea Exchange Exhibition", Seoul, South Korea
2007"Post-Avant-Garde Chinese New Art", Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong
2007Washington International Art Expo, Washington, USA
2007Spain International Art Expo, Spain
2007Contemporary Art of Northern China, Goettingen Gallery, Germany
2007"Chinese Contemporary SOCART", State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2006Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Art, China Millennium Monument, Beijing, China
2006"The Third Space: Abstract Painting Exhibition", Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2006Sino-German Contemporary Art Forum and Exchange Exhibition, Beijing, China
2006"From the Polar Region to Tiexi: Contemporary Art of Northeast China", Guangdong Art Museum, Guangzhou, China
2006"A Point in Time", Wuhan, China
2004International Art Biennale, California, USA
2003"A Point in Time", Changsha, China
2001"Academic and Non-Academic", Yibo Gallery, Shanghai, China
2000"Chinese Oil Painting in the Twentieth Century", Beijing, China
2000The Third National Exhibition of Young Artists, Beijing, China

Other Exhibitions

2018"Art from the National Art Museum of China: Beautiful China - A World of Colour Images", China Cultural Center, Berlin, Germany

Collections

UndatedNational Art Museum of China
UndatedGuangdong Art Museum
UndatedShanghai Art Museum
UndatedChengdu Art Museum
UndatedToday Art Museum
UndatedXi’an Art Museum
UndatedLuo Zhongli Art Museum
UndatedCui Zhenkuan Art Museum
UndatedHe Jingyuan Art Museum, Beijing
UndatedYu Zhi Paradise Art Museum, Shanghai
UndatedWu Zuoren Art Foundation
UndatedMidea Group Art Center
UndatedAsia Art Center, France
UndatedPrivate collections in South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia, France, Italy and Switzerland, among other countries.

Awards

2007Outstanding Contribution to Contemporary Art Award, US Asian Cultural Academy
1993Academic Award, China Oil Painting Biennial
1992Nomination Award, Guangzhou Biennial
1991Bronze Award, National Art Exhibition Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Communist Party of China
1985Encouragement Award, National Youth Art Exhibition

Wang Yigang

Paintings

Autumn Light in a Secluded Ravine

Billowing Clouds and Mist

Deep Spring in a Brocade Valley

Echoes of the Four Seasons

Emerald Peaks, Blue Falls

Flowing Colors of Spring Mountains

Red Flames and Blossoms

Sunset by the Sea

Traces of Light

Victory1

Wild Spring Blossoms

Wildfire and New Life