Rong Bao GBA

Bao has earned recognition on both national and international platforms. Notably, she was selected as one of the Top 10 emerging artists for the China UCCA Lab x Perrier New Emerging Artists and shortlisted for New Contemporaries 2022. In 2023, Bao secured the coveted theCOLAB / Royal College of Art / Yorkshire Sculpture Park Award. She recently received the Gilbert Bayes Prize 2024 awarded by the Royal Society of Sculptors and the Connections Through Culture 2023 grants program awarded by the British Council.

"Rong Bao is Me," Bao's debut solo exhibition at Saatchi Gallery, not only marks a significant milestone in her career but also represents the first solo exhibition by a female Chinese artist at this renowned venue. Her academic achievements and the critical acclaim of her work underscore a career that is both rapidly ascending and deeply impactful, reflecting a profound engagement with the cultural and environmental issues of our time.

Her 2023 exhibitions include Middlesbrough Art Week, at Bomb Factory, Guts Gallery, the Colab and as part of Hung, Drawn & Quartered, Standpoint Gallery London. Past exhibitions include: Beijing (Pinggu) Land Art Festival, Beijing Spurs Gallery, and Beijing Gallery weekend, EXPO CHICAGO 2022. She is co-president for ‘Walkative Society’ in 2022-2023. 

Rong Bao's art is a playful yet provocative exploration of deviation, defamiliarization, futility, interaction, and mischievousness. Through her use of a variety of materials, she creates works that challenge our perceptions of the world around us. At the heart of Rong's art is a sense of deviance, a willingness to push against the boundaries of what is considered acceptable. Her works often take familiar objects and transform them in unexpected ways, creating a sense of defamiliarization that encourages viewers to question their preconceptions. Rong's art is also characterized by a sense of futility, a recognition that our efforts to control the world around us are often in vain. Her works often feature playful yet futile gestures, inviting viewers to engage with them in a way that emphasizes the absurdity of our attempts to impose order on the world. Interaction is a key component of Rong's art. She creates works that are meant to be experienced, inviting viewers to touch, play, and engage with them in a physical way. This sense of interaction creates a sense of mischievousness, encouraging viewers to participate in the playful yet subversive world she has created.