STUDIO education resource - Museums & Galleries NSW
STUDIO education resource - Museums & Galleries NSW
STUDIO education resource - Museums & Galleries NSW
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GUO JIAN<br />
Guo Jian<br />
Sydney, <strong>NSW</strong><br />
Guon Jian lives and makes art from his studio apartment that overlooks<br />
Sydney’s busy Parramatta Road. The small space is crammed with plastic<br />
toys and models, books, magazines, postcards and posters. He often paints<br />
at night and will work on more than one painting at a time when he is feeling<br />
inspired. His dream, he says, is to have a really big studio - ‘I’d like to have<br />
lots of paintings on the go, and ride around on a bicycle looking at them.’<br />
Ian Lloyd’s photograph shows Guo Jian in the studio, dressed in his military<br />
uniform and making a face in the mirror. Before coming to Australia in 1992<br />
Guo Jian served almost four years in Chinese People’s Liberation Army<br />
and this experience haunts him to this day. ‘In China we have this military<br />
culture,’ he explains. ‘You see soldiers everywhere you go. That’s why I<br />
keep painting these subjects.’<br />
Guo Jian’s large, predominantly red and green canvases, depict pin up<br />
girls like those shown on the posters in his studio, and grinning soldiers<br />
that carry the artist’s own face. By using his own face in every painting he<br />
relives past experiences and mocks the seriousness of his subjects, as<br />
seen in the painting titled The Day Before I Went Away 2003.<br />
Born in 1963, Guo Jian now spends his time living between China and<br />
Australia.<br />
Explore the artist’s website:<br />
www.guojiantheartist.com/<br />
Compare the two<br />
studio photographs of Guo<br />
Jian located on the previous<br />
page and the next page. What<br />
do the images say about the<br />
painter? Why do you think<br />
Ian Lloyd chose to exhibit the<br />
photograph showing the artist<br />
in military uniform?<br />
What would your ideal studio<br />
be like – small or very large?<br />
How would you choose to get<br />
around it?<br />
Find your favourite studio<br />
among those in the exhibition.<br />
Why is this your favourite?<br />
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The White Rabbit Collection in Sydney is one of the world’s largest<br />
and most significant collections of contemporary Chinese art. Explore<br />
this collection:<br />
www.whiterabbitcollection.org/<br />
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