Wang Guangyi 王广义 Hailed as the father of the ‘Political Pop’ movement in China and one of the leading artists from the 1985 'New Wave' art movement, Wang Guangyi’s paintings involve amalgamating, confusing and blurring opposing ideological beliefs. With the influence of consumerism that China began to experience with the Open Door Policy, Wang Guangyi then created the Great Criticism series in the late 1990s as a reaction to the influx of a new visual regime of advertising images promoting newly available and high-priced commodities. His artworks are an ingenious blend of the clashing ideologies of socialism and Western consumerism and capitalism - the fantasy world of painted illusion of harmony between the two conflicting regimes that seems impossible in reality. Juxtaposing Chinese revolutionary images with famous Western consumer logos (Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Marlboro, Porsche, McDonald’s), the artist’s works provide a criticism of the popularity of Western commercial culture in China. Born in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province of China in 1957, Wang Guangyi was graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art) in 1984. He currently lives and works in Beijing, China. As one of the most representative artists in the contemporary Chinese art world, Wang Guangyi has widely exhibited both at home and aboard in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Jakarta, Tokyo, Basel, Berlin, Venice, Milan, Paris, London,Moscow, Sao Paulo, San Francisco and New York. His works are amongst major museum and private collections, notably the DSL Collection in the USA, Museum Ludwig in Germany, the Saatchi Gallery in the UK and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in the USA. In 2007, his massive Mao AO painting (1988) was sold for US$4.1 million in London, and his works continuously fetched outstanding auction results, making the artist one of the most commercially successful artists in the contemporary Chinese art world. Main Gallery: G/F, 21-31 Old Bailey Street, Central, Hong Kong. Tel: (852) 2869-8802 Branch Gallery: G/F, 27 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong. Tel: (852) 2542-3143 http://www.schoeniartgallery.com [email protected] .