Geng Jianyi 耿建翌

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Geng Jianyi (b. 1962, Zhengzhou, China) is a Chinese conceptual artist whose art aims to explore our individual identity within the complex structure of wider society. Geng lives and works in Hangzhou.

Geng Jianyi as a student at the Zhejiang Academy

Date & Place of Birth

Geng Jianyi was born in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China in 1962.

Geng Jianyi, "Face is Washed Away", 2001

Education & Development

Geng began his studies at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou, in 1981. He graduated from the oil painting department in 1985.

Art

1980s

Soon after Geng emerged onto the contemporary art scene in China in the 1980s, he found himself at the forefront of the movement. The cynical, sarcastic and often politically loaded work he created along with fellow members of the experimental art group "The Pool Society" in Hangzhou established itself as the prototype for future generations of contemporary artists. Geng’s paintings of big, bold laughing faces pioneered the Cynical Realism movement in 1985, and may be seen as a precursor for the images that Yue Minjun later adopted in his work.

1990s

In the early 90s, Geng’s work adopted a sociological overtone as he examined the paradoxical relationships between the individual and the system of society. The process of creating art became the concept itself, as Geng employed repetitive and monotonous actions based on a set of mathematical rules, which expelled any meaning or emotion associated with the resulting work. This tedious and outwardly idiotic process of art creation led to the rise of the term “grey humor”, which came to define art practices popular in China from the late 80s to mid 90s.

Geng Jianyi, "Third Copy", 2006

Today

Today, Geng continues to challenge the systems that shape our methods of knowing and thinking, with emphasis on the representation of the individual. He continues to work with a wide breadth of styles and mediums, including films, large-scale installations, works on paper, and oil on canvas paintings. Despite the recent commercialization of Chiense contemporary art, Geng insists that he continues to work with irreverence toward the art market, as is evident from this early quotation from the artist:

“I used to think that a completed artwork was like the completed act of taking a piss: when it’s finished it’s finished - you don’t go carrying the contents of the chamber pot around with you. But now things are different, you can’t just take a piss whenever you like anymore and be done with it. There are special bathrooms, like museums and art galleries, that want to expose you in your most basic acts. And doesn’t everybody now accept this situation as normal? The people going in for a look are all very interested, comparing who is big and who is small. How is it that I was born in this age of organization? And how is it that I want to be proclaimed the champ? It’s really a shame."   -Geng Jianyi^[1]

Geng Jianyi, "An Unapologetic Act of Sabotage", 2007, video installation

Secondary Activities

Today, Geng lives and works in Hangzhou and teaches at the China Academy of Fine Arts.

Exhibitions

Geng has exhibited widely on both a national and international scale since his first exhibition at The Gallery of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in 1985. For Geng’s CV, Click Here

Gallery Affiliations

ShanghART Gallery & H-Space (Shanghai, Bejing, China)

Chambers Fine Art (New York, NY; Bejing, China)

Geng Jianyi, "Eternal Rays of the Sun", 1992

Acquisitions & Auctions

Geng Jianyi, "The Second State: Big Red Double Happniess", 1987

The record auction sale for Geng's work occurred at Phillips de Pury in London in October, 2007 where his large oil on canvas painting Second State: Big Red Double Happiness (1987) sold for USD 928,808. His work has been sold at other prominent auction houses including Sotheby's, New York and Hong Kong, and Casa D'Aste Baubina, Rome. For more information on Geng's auction records, Click Here