Born in 1957 and educated at Tangshan Normal University, graduating in 1980, Chang Xugong’s move to the artist’s enclave of Yuanmingyuan, near Beijing’s Old Summer Palace, placed him right at the heart of a community of radical young artists pursuing social and artistic change. Chang is most closely associated with the ‘Gaudy Art’ movement, so named by critic Li Xianting, which satirised the ‘get rich quick’ mentality prevalent in Chinese society in the 1990s, after the economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping ushered in an era of entrepreneurship and prompted a love of western consumer goods that signified high status. Chang’s embroidered portraits of figures from both ‘high’ and ‘low’ ends of the social spectrum deliberately evoked the garish advertising of the period, as well as referencing the bright colours of folk arts such as embroidery and woodcuts. His work was shown in ‘Mahjong – Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection’ in Bern, Switzerland in 2005, as well as solo and group shows in China, Germany and Australia. He lives and works in Beijing.

The White Rabbit Collection is one of the world’s most extensive and significant collections of contemporary art from China. With a focus on works created since the year 2000, the Collection contains almost 3,000 works by over 750 artists and continues to expand. Note that when you click on the link below you will be forwarded to the White Rabbit Collection website.

Explore the work of Chang Xugong in the collection database