Sui Jianguo

One of the most important contemporary Chinese sculptors working today, Sui Jianguo was born in 1956, Qingdao, Shandong Province. He was educated at the Shandong Institute of Fine Arts and the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. In early 2000, Sui was one of the first artists to move his studio to the famous 798 art district and he is often credited with popularizing the area.

Jianguo Sui became internationally prominent through the use of "naturalistic sculptures" that made use of rocks, boulders, and steel. These early sculptures brought him into the international scene. His true acclaim came in 1997 when he crafted his first Mao suit, a sculpture that imitated Chairman Mao’s communist jacket.

He has been praised by art critics for being a "pioneer venturing to the farthest reaches of Chinese sculpture." Sui Jianguo became known worldwide as the main interpreter of the reflection of economic transition in art, first using Maoist iconography as a form of exorcism. Without selling off the persistence of cultural values peculiar to his national heritage, his work deals with his suitability to the present and the metamorphosis due to new technology.