Person
Artist
Gao Xiaowu
高孝午
Date of birth
1976
Place Of birth
Sanming, Fujian, China
Biography
Born in Fujian Province in 1976, Gao Xiaowu celebrates ordinary, flawed people who are far from the idealised bodies of classical sculpture – his figures are often based on the rural farmers of his childhood memories. Gao studied sculpture at the Xiamen Art Academy (graduating in 1999) and at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (2004). His characteristic rounded figures in curious poses have gained international recognition. Gao Xiaowu’s work is inflected by the pop culture aesthetic of comics and cartoons, by the folk art of Fujian Province and by his love of sculptors such as Rodin and Fernando Botero. Having grown up in a small rural village, but currently living and working in Beijing, Gao appreciates the power of imagination, and through his work displays the contrast between ambition and gravity, reality and dreams. He celebrates ordinary people who will never escape reality, yet never abandon hope. Gao Xiaowu has exhibited widely, and his works are held in both private and public collections in the USA, throughout Asia and Australia.
