1966     Born in Heilongjiang Province, China.
1991     Graduated from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Sichuan, China.

solo exhibition
2009    “Wang Qingsong”, Hammer Projects, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA.
2008    “Temporary Ward,  Wang Qingsong”, Baltic Contemporary Art Center, Gateshead, UK.
2007    China: Past, Present & Future. MEWO Kunsthalle, Memmingen, Germany.
2007    Wang Qingsong: Between Nostalgia and Cynicism. ECCO Contemporary Art Center, Brasilia, Brazil.
2006    Wang Qingsong, Albion Gallery, London. UK.
2005   “Wang Qingsong in Arras”, city hall, art academy and public library, Arras, France.
2003    Wang Qingsong: Present-day Epics, Saidye Bronfman Contemporary Art Center, Montreal Canada.
2002    Wang Qingsong Photography, Foundation Oriente, Macao, China.   2000    “Glorious Life”, Wan Fung Gallery, Beijing.

group exhibition
2007     “Action-Camera: Beijing Performance Photography”, The Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, Canada.
               “Three Decades: The Contemporary Chinese Collection”, Queensland Art Gallery, Australia.
              10th Havana Biennial, Cuba.
2008      “21: Contemporary Art the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum, New York City, USA.
              “China: Construction and Deconstruction”, Musee de Saint Paulo, Brazil.
2006    YI! CHINA. Contemporary Photography from China. Artium of Alava (Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte           Contemporaneo ARTIUM), Spain.
2006     Acting the Part -- history of staged photography, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada.
              The 37th Recontres de Arles Photographie, Arles, France.
              C on Cities: 10th Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy.
2005     Re-viewing the City --- Guangdong International Photo Biennale,Guangdong Museum of Art, China.
Follow Me! Chinese Art at the Threshold of the Millennium, Mori Art Museum, Japan.
2004       New Photography from China, International Center of Photography, New York City, USA.
2003       Fashion and Photography, Moscow House of Photography, Russia.
             Prague Biennale 1, Czech Republic.
2002      Special Projects, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA.
Chinese Modernity, Museum of the Foundation Armando Alvares Penteado, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
2001     Promenade in Asia-CUTE. Art Tower Mito, Japan.
2000     Man + Space, 3rd Kwangju Biennale 2000. Kwangju, Korea.            
1999    Ouh La La, Kitsch! TEDA Contemporary Art Museum, Tianjin, China. 
1998 Site  of Desire: 1998 Taipei Biennial. Taipei Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan. 
1996        China!Kunst Museum, Bonn, Germany, traveling in other countries.   
Gaudy Life. Wan Fung Art Gallery, Beijing. China.

In 2003, I created the C-print photographs China Mansion (120x1200cm) and Romantique (120x650cm). Both of these works were shot in a Beijing movie studio of more than 19,000 square feet. This studio formerly hosted important movie crews, including those for the model operas during the period of the Cultural Revolution and, recently, the Kill Bill crew. Currently the largest movie studio in China, it regrettably will be torn down to support commercially ambitious real-estate development projects.

China Mansion summarizes my perception of Chinese social reality during the current stage of globalization. China has been very enthusiastic about inviting foreign experts in economy, technology, architecture, and culture to give support and guidance to its modernization programs. These foreign specialists help to create economic opportunities and introduce alternative systems of thought to China. However, the cultural clash creates social contradictions. This phenomenon triggered me to shoot and direct China Mansion. In the set-up, I invited models to play the parts of foreign guests, mimicking postures in paintings by Ingres, Courbet, Manet, Gauguin, Klein, Boucher, Rembrandt, Rubens, Man Ray, and several other artist. I wanted my models to communicate with each other across centuries and with Chinese culture so as to create certain amiable relationships. It seems my hope was in vain. It’s easy to see that I play the role of the confusing host in this mansion, filled with both Chinese and western antiquities. Obviously the host is a conservative, but also a fashionista. On the left of the photograph, the host wears a banner of welcome. But on the right, the armed guard—like a terra-cotta soldier—looks like a robber, preventing the honorable guests from free movement and forcing them to leave something valuable in the host’s mansion.

In Romantique, one seems to walk into a land that is half the heaven of western religion and half a pastoral Chinese garden. There are cheap plastic leaves, fruits, flowers, and decorations. The little ponds in this paradise emit a light smoke created from dry ice. Viewers can imagine false happiness in this fabricated beautiful paradise. Models act out the figures in western masterpieces by Massacio, Velasquez, Botticelli, Raphael, and Matisse. There’s a Chinese golden Buddha, beautiful princesses, and livestock. There’s a western girl and a Chinese man and his little girl, highlighting the potential conflicts of this complicated international dialogue. These people are very happy, peaceful, and without desire. Like “China Mansion”, the communication in “Romantique” is also forced, manufactured, chaotic and confusing in fabricated happiness in this man-made utopia. For me such fabricated ideal is like a daydream, a bubble.