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POMERANZ COLLECTION

ZHENG GUOGU

Good Fortune No. 4
2008
Oil on silk
98 x 98 cm
Unique
Inv. Nr. 58

Born in 1970 in Yangjiang, Guangdong Province, China
Lives and works in Yangjiang, Guangdong Province, China

Zheng Guogu, who received the Chinese Contemporary Art Award in 2006, is one of the leading young Chinese artists who emerged in the nineties in the context of profound shifts in a People’s Republic opening up to a globalized world. He started his work with series of photographs mounted as contact sheets, documenting the lifestyle of young people in his native city in the South of China, Yangjiang. Working with photography, painting, video and installation, he is very close to the conceptual group of artists The Big Tail Elephant Group, active in Guangzhou since the beginning of the nineties, who encouraged him to experiment performance and a more conceptual approach. Zheng Guogu is particularly interested in the influence of consumer culture on Chinese traditions. His fascination for mass media led him to produce a series of prints and paintings that may recall calligraphic scrolls. As in Fortune Cookie N°4, brightly coloured Chinese and English scripts taken from entertainment magazines or advertising logos are displayed on more traditional backgrounds.