Why Guan Yong matters
Guan Yong is a Beijing-based contemporary Chinese painter whose exhibition history stretches from a 1998 group show at the He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen through a 2026 solo exhibition at POST Gallery. His public market and gallery record is thin compared with the best-known names in Chinese contemporary art, which makes him a useful case study for how to read a developing artist's record with appropriate caution rather than overstatement.
- Nationality
- Chinese
- Media
- Painting
- Movement
- Contemporary Chinese art
- Education
- Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, BA in Art, 1998
- Signature motifs
- Muted, limited-palette figuration
- Representation
- POST Gallery
By the numbers
- USD 310,722Auction highDo you Know? We are so distressed (diptych), Christie's Hong Kong, 2010, exact sale date unconfirmed
- Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, BA 1998Education
- Beijing, ChinaBase
- Solo exhibition, POST Gallery, 2026Recent activity
Biography
Guan Yong was born in 1975, most likely in October, in Heze, Shandong Province, China. He studied at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts and received a Bachelor's degree in Art in 1998. He continues to live and work in Beijing.
His early exhibition history includes the 1998 group show "Ideal of New Generation: Chinese New Generation Artist Award Exhibition" at the He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen. By the mid-2000s he was showing in Beijing at Arario Gallery and, in 2007, held two solo exhibitions in the same year: "Whose New Age" at the Duolun Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai and "The Age of Pluralism Being Persistent" at New Age Gallery in Beijing, the latter documented in the Asia Art Archive's library holdings. He has also exhibited internationally, including a solo presentation at Galerie Felix Ringel in Dusseldorf around 2014 and inclusion in the group exhibition "The Bright Eye of the Universe: Chinese Art" at Sundaram Tagore Gallery. A 2019 solo exhibition, "Introverted Illusionism," was held at Magician Space in Beijing. In 2026 he opened a solo exhibition, "Profound Boredom," at POST Gallery.
Critical reception
Independent, attributable critical commentary on Guan Yong in major art publications is limited in the available record. Gallery-authored exhibition text has described a body of work built from a restrained, limited palette, and his repeated inclusion in museum-adjacent survey shows in Shanghai and Beijing points to sustained curatorial interest in his painting practice. No verbatim, named-critic assessment in a major outlet could be confirmed for citation here.
Market
Guan Yong's auction presence is modest and unevenly documented across platforms. The best-documented high point is Do you Know? We are so distressed (diptych), reported by MutualArt as selling for USD 310,722 at Christie's Hong Kong in 2010, though the exact sale date is not published in the sources reviewed. A second confirmed result is Scene - 2, which sold for HKD 237,500 (about USD 30,400) at Christie's Hong Kong on 27 November 2016. Because public auction databases for this artist are fragmented and not consistently cross-referenced, these figures should be treated as the best-documented results available rather than a confirmed, exhaustive record.
Top auction results
| Work | Price | Sale |
|---|---|---|
| Do you Know? We are so distressed (diptych) (2010) | USD 310,722 | Christie's, Hong Kong |
| Scene - 2 (2016) | USD 30,400 (HKD 237,500) | Christie's, Hong Kong, 2016-11-27 |
Selected exhibitions
| Years | Exhibition | Venues |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Profound Boredom | POST Gallery |
| 2019 | Introverted Illusionism | Magician Space, Beijing |
| 2014 | Solo exhibition | Galerie Felix Ringel, Dusseldorf |
| 2013 to 2014 | The Bright Eye of the Universe: Chinese Art | Sundaram Tagore Gallery |
| 2007 | Whose New Age | Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai |
| 2007 | The Age of Pluralism Being Persistent | New Age Gallery, Beijing |
| 2006 | Beyond Experience: New China! | Arario Gallery, Beijing |
| 1998 | Ideal of New Generation: Chinese New Generation Artist Award Exhibition | He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen |
Authentication and provenance
No catalogue raisonne.
No catalogue raisonne has been identified for this artist. Public auction and gallery records are fragmented across several platforms, so provenance for any individual work should be confirmed directly with the exhibiting gallery.
Primary reference: https://www.artsy.net/artist/guan-yong
What collectors should know
The public record for Guan Yong is thinner and less consistent than for many artists with an established secondary market: birth-year listings vary across auction catalogues (1974 and 1975 both appear), no catalogue raisonne exists, and gallery representation is documented through exhibition activity rather than a confirmed, formal representation agreement. Collectors should treat any single auction result as provisional, confirm identity and provenance directly with the exhibiting gallery, and expect that additional, currently untracked sales may exist outside the sources reviewed here.
Further reading and resources
Data current as of 2026-07-11.

