Born in Changchun, Jilin, in 1966, Wu Yi graduated from the Department of Chinese Painting, CAFA in 1989, and studied traditional Chinese painting under Professor Lu Chen at the CAFA, Beijing, and received a master’s degree in 1993; currently he is an associate professor in the Department of Mural Painting at the CAFA, where he is a postgraduate supervisor and the director of Studio 4.

Wu Yi is extremely gentle while also being emphatic. He is friendly and educated. He knows the art of listening and discovering the essence of things. He is gifted with a very rare style of humour, so much loved by us Czechs. His deep feelings live in symbiosis with an analytical mind. He devotes everything to his art of painting and offers good wishes for everyone! He is also helpful!The painter Wu Yi simply fascinates me. He is a great man, a great painter. He is a professor in the Department of Mural Painting at the CAFA in Beijing, where he previously studied.

There are only a few visual artists in the West who are able to paint with ink on paper – a traditional Chinese technique requiring a consonance between thinking and emotion. By the same token, only a few Chinese artists are able to use oil or tempera on canvas – a traditional western technique. Wu Yi has a command of both. His paintings can be inspirational for Czech artists; they are true and gentle.

Wu Yi is an embodiment of an old Chinese Master who is ingeniously changing the history of ink painting. He gives us an image of what a Chinese scholar looked (and looks) like, and thus we have an opportunity to examine what we learned about Chinese scholars, for example, from the Songs of Ancient China and perhaps other sources. They have in their home the “four treasures of a scholar’s studio”, including a brush, ink stick, rice paper and ink stone. Since time immemorial, Chinese scholars and men of letters, whose ambition was to attain a position of office and serve the World under Heaven, the ruler and the people, have been training not only in the general official skills but also the basics of philosophy, ethics and aesthetics in the never-ending process of self-improvement. This includes the learning of artistic skills, such as calligraphy, the art of playing the qin zither, painting, as well as literary art – the four arts of Chinese lyricism.

Solo exhibitions

2013 Prague Summer, Václav Špála Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic

2007 Simplicity - Exhibition of Works by Wu Yi, Galerie 99, Aschaffenburg, Germany

2001 Exhibition of Works by Wu Yi, Art Museum of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, China

1998 Exhibition of Pictures by Wu Yi, Shenzhen Art Museum, China

1993 Exhibition of Works by Wu Yi, CAFA Art Museum, China

Group exhibitions

2013 “The Revival of Tradition- Chinese Modern Art Show”, İstanbul Tuyap,Turkey

2013 “Portrait of the Times: Thirty years of Chinese Contemporary Art”, Power Station of Art, Shanghai

2013 “China’s Freehand Brushwork - Nomination Exhibition of Leading Contemporary Chinese Ink Wash Artists”, Casares Museum, Italy

2013 “New Dimension of Ink Painting – Critics’ Nomination Exhibition”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

2013 “Original Tao – the New Conception of Chinese Contemporary Art” (Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong

2013 “Parallel Exhibition to the Venice Biennale”, Venice, Italy

2013 “Re-Ink - Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Ink and Wash Painting”, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

2012 “Exhibition of Modern Chinese Ink Wash Painting”, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany

2012 “Exhibition of Modern Chinese Art”, Palais des Nations, Geneva; Swiss Exhibition Centre, Basel

2012 “Exhibition of Modern Chinese Art”, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK

2012 “Revival of Tradition - Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition”, La Galleria Pall Mall, London, UK

2012 “Dimensions - Analysis of Three Art Cases – Guangzhou Triennial”, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China

2012 “Modern and Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings in the Past 100 Years - Carrousel du Louvre”, Louvre, Paris, France

2011 “Contemporary Art from China”, University of Georgia Museum of Art, United States

2011 “Chinese Description - Exhibition of Contemporary Art”, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

2011 “The Idea is Before the Brush - Contemporary Chinese Ink on Paper”, Eli Klein Fine Art Gallery, New York, US

2010 “Reshaping History: China Art from 2000 to 2009”, China National Convention Centre, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

2010 “Nature of China - Exhibition of Modern Chinese Art Studies in 2010”, True Color Museum, Suzhou; Mingtian Gallery, Chengdu, China

2010 “International Biennial of Chinese Ink and Wash Painting in Shenzhen”, Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen, China

2009 “Matrix of Four Gates – Exhibition of Traditional Lineaged Contemporary Ink and wash”, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

2009 “Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Ink Wash and Paper”, National History Museum of the Republic of Belarus, Historical Museum of Serbia

2009 “Ink not Ink: Chinese Contemporary Ink and Wash Art Exhibition”, Warsaw Royal Castle, Hungarian Agricultural Museum, The National Museum of Contemporary Art of Romania, Sculpture Museum of the Croatian Academy of Science and Art

2008 “New Limits of Ink and Wash Painting - Exhibition of Modern Chinese Ink and Wash Painting”, Berlin National galerie, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany

2008 “Exhibition of the Works of Li Jin, Liu Qinghe, Wu Yi”, Danish Centre of Art, Beijing

2008 “The Chinese Art of Affection”, Yuxin Gallery, Singapore

2008 “The Path of Chinese Painting in the Contemporary Age, 1978-2008”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

2008 “Tastes and Paintings: Clarification - Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Ink and Wash Painting”, Art Centre of Providence University, Taiwan

2008 “Ink not Ink - Chinese Contemporary Ink and Wash Art Exhibition”, Shenzhen Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Beijing Today Art Museum

2007 “Life Needs Smiles: Exhibition of Works by Three Artists from New York, Moscow and Beijing”, Galerie Albrecht, Munich, Germany

2007 “Unity and Solidarity - The Chinese Version of the Exhibition”, Today Art Museum, Beijing

2007 “Chengdu Biennial”, International Exhibition Centre, Chengdu

2007 “Ink: The Monochrome World”, Tokyo University of Arts, Tokyo

2007 “Focus on Ink - Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Painting”, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing

2006 “Meditation and Narration: Exhibition of Contemporary Art”, Artist Commune, Hong Kong

2006 “Exhibition of Works by Wu Yi and Li Jin”, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing

2006 “Documentation Exhibition of Ink and Wash Art”, Nanjing Museum

2006 “Large Exhibition of Chinese Art Today”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

2006 “21st International Exhibition of Asian Art, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore

2006 “2006-Documentary Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Art”, Art Museum of China Millennium Monument, Beijing

2005 “Makeup: Large Exhibition of Chinese Theatre Arts”, Today Art Museum, Beijing

2005 “1985-2000: Experimental Ink and Wash Art Retrospective”, Gallery of the Institute of Fine Art in Shenzhen

2005 “Sino-Korean Exchange Exhibition of Modern Ink and Wash Art”, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul

2004 “The Spot, Radiation and Penetration – The Visual Communication from Ink and Brush”, Malaysia National Museum of Art, Kuala Lumpur

2004 “Images: Exchange Exhibition between CAFA and Sydney Art School”, Gallery of Sydney Art School, Australia

2004 “Connecting the Classic and the Modern: Exhibition of New Works by Leading Chinese Artists”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

2004 “19th International Asian Art Exhibition, Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan

2004 “Figurative Painting of the Contemporary New Reality”, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai

2003 “How to Explain the Word ‘Ink’”, Artist Commune, Hong Kong

2002 “The Light of Ink: Exhibition of Contemporary Ink and Wash Paintings from both Shores of the Taiwan Strait”, National Dr.Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taipei, Taiwan

2002 “Sino-Korean Exhibition of Works by Selected Artists”, Seoul Sejong Museum of Art, Art Museum of University of Suwon

2002 “Golden Harvest: Exhibition of Modern Chinese Art”, Zagreb National Museum, Croatia; Beograd Historical Museum, Yugoslavia

2001 “The Real Color of Ink – Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Painting”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

2001 “Twenty Years of Chinese Contemporary Ink and Wash Painting”, Guangdong Art Museum, Guangzhou

2001 “Poster Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Artists”, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing

2000 “Large Exhibition of New Chinese Painting”, Shanghai Art Museum

1999 “Second International Biennial of Ink Wash Painting in Shenzhen”, Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen

1999 “Metropolitan Ink”, Guangdong Art Museum, Guangzhou

1998 “Uncovering Twenty Years of Contemporary Chinese Art”, Imperial Ancestral Shrine, Beijing

1998 “Liberated Ink: Exhibition of Six Modern Artists”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

1997 “Exhibition of Modern Chinese Sketching”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

1997 “Stars of the Century: Biennial of Chinese Art”, Toronto Art Museum, Toronto, Canada

1996 “The State of Contemporary Ink and Wash Painting in China”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

1995 “The Invitation Exhibition for Young Artists”, Gallery of CAFA, Beijing

1994 “Test of Tension: Exhibition of Expressive Ink and Wash Painting”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

Courtesy of the artist, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO.