Huang Xiaopeng (1960-2020) was a renowned artist and educator who resided and worked in various cities, including Shantao, Guangzhou, London, and Berlin. He received his education at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and the Slade School of Fine Arts in London during the 1980s and early 1990s. Throughout his career, Huang’s artistic endeavors, particularly his installations, videos, and banners in the later phase, garnered critical acclaim and were exhibited worldwide. As an educator, he spearheaded projects such as the 5th Studio at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and Huangbian Station, which nurtured numerous artists in Guangdong.
In the autumn of 2021, the Times Museum Guangzhou organized an exhibition titled “Don’t Kill Me, I’m in Love – A Tribute to Huang Xiaopeng.” The exhibition featured major works by Huang, newly commissioned works by his students, and relevant archives. Building upon the research conducted for this exhibition, the Asia Art Archive has established an individual archive dedicated to Huang, which is now accessible to the public.
As a tribute to Huang’s significant contributions, his students and colleagues formed an independent art initiative known as the Huang Xiaopeng Art & Education Society. In 2022, the Society, in collaboration with the Times Museum Guangzhou, initiated a research and publication project centered around Huang Xiaopeng.
The project aims to showcase Huang’s exceptional artistic and educational achievements while exploring key themes such as Chinese artists in the UK, contemporary art education in China, and the art scene in the Pearl River Delta region. Leading this project is Anthony Yung, a Senior Researcher at the Asia Art Archive.
This research and publication endeavor is supported by the M Art Foundation.
Huang Xiaopeng (1960 – 2020, Shanxi, China) was an artist from Guangdong, China. He studied at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (1979-1983) and the Slade School of Fine Art (1990-1992). In an artistic career that spans over four decades, Huang has produced a complex and vigorous body of works. The most well-known are his later video and installation works, which explores inevitable dislocations as a consequence of translating, copying and transforming through the modernization process, to test the boundaries of meaning.
