Gu Xiong School Backpacks - Artists For Kids Gallery

Gu Xiong is an internationally acclaimed Canadian artist best known for his multimedia
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 Tsetung’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.
The woodcut “School Backpacks” was hand printed by the artist using traditional techniques
and is a continuation of his visual exploration of contemporary cultural debris. The
simple colourful shapes depict a complex tragedy generated by the 2008 earthquake in
Sichuan, China. The image is a sober reminder of the sacred trust we place in Education
and is a clear metaphor for social change; a “crumbling of old ways” in China. Partial
proceeds from print sales will be used to support an art education exchange with schools
in Sichuan, China.
Gu Xiong with recent work in his studio.
The Artists for Kids Trust was established in 1989 through a generous partnership
between some of Canada’s finest artists and the North Vancouver School District. Its mission,
through the sale of original prints created by its artist patrons is to build an art education
legacy for the children of British Columbia. Artists for Kids houses a stuning collection of
contemporary Canadian art in it’s Gallery and provides a wealth of art enrichment program
opportunities for thousands of students of all ages and abilities each year.
Canadian artists who generously support the program include: Gu Xiong, Kenojuak Ashevak,
Robert Bateman, the late Anne Meredith Barry, the late B.C. Binning, David Blackwood,
Molly Lamb Bobak, Edward Burtynsky, Douglas Coupland, Robert Davidson, Wayne
Eastcott, Jamie Evrard, Joe Fafard, Gathie Falk, Graham Gillmore, the late Betty Goodwin,
Angela Grossmann, Ted Harrison, J. Carl Heywood, the late Edward J. Hughes, Rodney
Graham, Ann Kipling, George Littlechild, the late Jean McEwen, Roz Marshall, the late
Guido Molinari, Greg Murdock, the late Toni Onley, Ross Penhall, Jane Ash Poitras, the
late Bill Reid, the late Jack Shadbolt, Arnold Shives, Gordon Smith, Michael Snow, Takao
Tanabe, Charles van Sandwyk, Roy Henry Vickers, Irene F. Whittome, Alan Wood, Robert
Young and, the bequest of Betty and Fred Amess.
Artists for Kids Gallery, 810 West 21st Street, North Vancouver, BC Canada V7P 2C1
Phone: 604.903.3797 Fax: 604.903.3778 E/mail: bmacdonald@nvsd44.bc.ca
Bookmark our web site: www.artists4kids.com