Fei Dawei

b. 1954, Shanghai

Art critic, curator

Paris-based art critic and curator Fei Dawei is a veteran of the field who participated in the organization of many seminal events in the historical narrative of contemporary Chinese art. An art history graduate from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (1985) (see art academies), he belongs to the first generation of art critics formed at the end of the Cultural Revolution and replacing the old generation of art historians and critics with a strong ideological formation. He participated in the organization of the February 1989 China Avant-Garde exhibition in the China Art Gallery in Beijing and was involved in one of the first participation of contemporary Chinese artists in a high-profile international exhibition ‘Magiciens de la terre’ at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, also in 1989. His show ‘Chine demain pour hier’ (Pourrières, 1990) regrouped six Chinese artists recently relocated to the West and was the first event of such kind in Europe after the Tiananmen events. Numerous exhibitions followed, like ‘Exceptional Passage’ (Fukuoka, 1991), ‘Asiana’ (Venice Biennale, 1995) and ‘In Between Limits’ (Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, 1997). He received the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture and has been artistic director of the Foundation Ullens since 2003.

His publications include Cai Guoqiang (Fondation Cartier/ Thames and Hudson, 2001) and ‘When We Look…’ (Another Long March. Chinese Conceptual Art, Breda: Foundament, 1997).

Further reading

Fei, Dawei (1989). ‘China/Avant-Garde’ (interviewed by Meng Mei). Art Press 141 (November): 8, 28–34.

——(1997/8). ‘An Aspect of Contemporary Chinese Art: In Between Limits’ (comments on the exhibition). Available at http://www.shanghart.com/sh-texts02.htm

Qian, Zhijian (2000). ‘The Changing Role of Critics in the 1990s’. In John Clark (ed.), Chinese Art at the End of the Millennium. Hong Kong: New Media, 25–8.

MARTINA KÖPPEL-YANG