The Luo Brothers



The cynic says: "This is the corruption of tradition, the corruption of things serious by vile consumerism".

The Luo brothers (Luo Weidong, 1963, Luo Weiguo, 1964 and Luo Weibing, 1972) were born in Nanning, in the southern province of Guangxi. They graduated respectively at the Guangxi Academy of Art, the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art and the Central Academy of Applied Arts, and since 1986 they have been living in Beijing, where they all work together.

With such revolutionary and patriotic names, the three Luo brothers could never have become nude or flower painters. Luo "defender of the Orient" (Weidong), Luo "defender of the country" (Weiguo) and Luo "bodyguard" (Weibing) all have names characteristic of a distinctive period which preceded and followed the Cultural Revolution, during which political fervour still filled the hearts of many parents. However, by the time that the children had grown up, things had changed in China. Now on the anniversary of the foundation of the People's Republic of China on the 1st October, there are more bright red Coca Cola advertisements in the streets than red national flags.

Following on the trail initiated by political pop, which was a trend from the beginning of the nineties coined by Li Xianting, the exponents of which combined communist iconography with symbolism of contemporary consumer society, the Luo brothers have emphasized the reference to popular culture exploiting rainbow colours, auspicious symbols and eye-catching elements to the full - in brief, kitsch - as seen in the streets, shops and houses of common people in China.

Their repertoire is extremely varied and expressed through compositions in which a brightly-coloured horror vacui replaces the traditional alternation of empty space and form of the classical Chinese style. The most famous foreign brands (with the omnipresent Coca Cola, Pepsi and Oreo…) take the place, in the collective imagination, of slogans of political propaganda. Materialistic mentality supercedes the fervour for ideals resulting in a triumph of colours and techniques, techniques taken from Chinese tradition: the lacquers of 1999 are followed by the ink-on-paper works of 2001.

In the paintings of the Luo brothers one only sees smiley faces and plump children, and the golden rays of the orient sun crown the brands of biscuits or soft drinks. Could this be the expression of their unrestrained gluttony or of their mockery of the superficial triumphant vision of China's "modernization"?

Luo Brothers

Luo Weidong

1963
Born in Guanxi Zhuang Automomous Region
1987
Graduated from Guanxi Art College

Luo Weiguo

1964
Born in Guanxi Zhuang Automomous Region
1987
Graduated from GuanzhouAcademy of Fine Art

Luo Weibing 

1972 
Born in Guanxi Zhuang Automomous Region
1997 
Graduated from College of Art & Design

Currently, the three Luo brothers live and work in Beijing 

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2008
Welcome, Welcome, Xin Dong Cheng Gallery, Beijing, China

2007
RED HOT BRIGHT - The Recent Works of the Luo Brothers, Dolores de Sierra Gallery, Madrid, Spain

2006
New Works, Sara Meltzer Gallery, New York, USA 

2004
Happiness, Art Beatus Exchange Square, Hong Kong

2002 
Luo Brothers, Sydney, Australia
Luo Brothers`Fine Arts lndividual Exhibition, Paris, France

Selected Group Exhibitions
2008
More Yum Cha, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Face East, Robinson Gallery, Denver, USA

2007
RED HOT - Asian Art Today from the Chaney Family Collection, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
The Year of the Golden Pig - Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, UK

2006
Under the Radar: Chinese Contemporary Art, Robischon Gallery, Denver, Colorado, USA
Hallelujah Anyway No. 2, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, USA 
Room Tone, Sara Meltzer Gallery, New York, USA 
Stitching Noorderzon, Noorderzon Festival, Groningen, Netherlands Into Black: Works in light, projected video, photography, drawing and painting, Western Bridge, Seattle,USA
Welcome Home, Sara Meltzer Gallery, New York, USA 

2005
Video Lounge, Art Basel Miami Beach 2005, selected by Christopher Eamon
Solitude and Focus, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, USA 
19 Rainstorms, Western Bridge, Seattle, USA 
Neil Goldberg: Single Channel Work, Northwest FilmForum, Seattle, USA 
How to Fix Reality, Impakt, Utrecht, Netherlands

2004
A Grid of One, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, USA 
Multiplex, Curated by Eve Sussman, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, USA 
7th Street Shadow, YYZ Artists' Outlet, Toronto, Canada
Synapses, Florence Lynch Gallery, New York, USA 
Invisibilities, DUMBO Film and Video Festival, Brooklyn, USA 
Around Narrative, One Take Festival, Zagreb, Croatia
Second International Biennial Of Video Art, Tel Aviv, Israel

2003
Video Projections, Curated by Sally Berger and Barbara London, Museum of Modern Art, Queens, USA 
Portrait, Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt, Germany
The Inquiring Camera: Experimental Documentaries, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, USA 
Just Stand There, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, USA 
25 Hours, Poliesportiu El Raval, Barcelona, Spain
Urban Lights, VideoEx, Zurich, Switzerland
New York Jewish Film Festival, Lincoln Center, New York, USA 

2002 
New York Video Festival, Lincoln Center, New York, USA 
Time Share, Sara Meltzer Gallery, New York, USA 
CEC International Screening Series, ProArte Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia
Zebra Poetry Award, Interfilm, UFA Kino, Berlin, Germany
Gimme Shelter, Museo Tamayo Arte Contempor‡neo, Mexico City, Mexico
Pek Festival, Het Haags Filmhuis, The Hague, Netherlands
14th Annual Onion City Experimental Film And Video Festival, Chicago, USA (Jury Award)

2001 
Un art populaire, Fondation Cartier, Paris, France 

2000 
Sydney Biennale, Sydney, Australia 

1999 
Fukuoka Art Museum collection exhibition, Fukuoka, Japan 

1999 
Ouh,la,la Kitsch!, Teda Contemporary Art Museun, Tianjin, China 
San Francisco MoMA collection exhibition, San Francisco, USA 

1998 
24th Sao Paulo Biennale, Sao Paulo, Brazil

1996 
Injury of Ostentation, Beijing, USA

Awards and Fellowships 
2003  John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship
2002  CEC International Traveling Exhibition Fellowship
2001  Macdowel Fellowship
2000  New York State Council On The Arts
          Experimental Television Center
1999  New York State Council On The Arts
1998  Experimental Television Center
1996  New York State Council On The Arts
          Experimental Television Center

Kulay-Diwa Gallery of Philippine Contemporary Art is a privately owned venue for artistic expression. It is strategically located within a cluster of progressive communities South of Manila. It has an independent exhibition area able to accommodate large-scale works, and a spacious garden ideal for outdoor programs, performances and sculpture installations.

Goals of Kulay-Diwa

To discover and promote the works of talented, young and deserving Filipino Artist;

To serve as a cultural outpost and make the arts more accessible to the fast-growing communities South of Manila; and

To foster cultural interaction and exchanges with the local regions and other countries.

Kulay(Color)

Diwa(Spirit, Thought)





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