Chinese artists in the Archibald Prize

Chinese-born artists living in Australia have made a significant contribution to the Archibald Prize, which is awarded annually to the best portrait, 'preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia’. Many of their Archibald works from over the years are presented here. Click on a work to read more about it in our prizes archive.

For a few others we don't have images, including Wendy Li (1990 portrait of Eunice Gardner). And, of course, there are other artists of Chinese heritage, born in Australia or elsewhere, who have exhibited in the Archibald but are not included here.

A selection of these paintings - alongside some from the Salon des Refusés - was displayed in the exhibition A retrospective of Chinese Archibald finalists, curated by Jiawei Shen, at the China Cultural Centre, Level 1/151 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, 25 July to 27 August 2015.

Born in Shanghai in 1963, Li Baohua received a university diploma from the Shanghai Arts College. In 1987 he was represented in the China Oil Painting Exhibition. He migrated to Australia in 1989. We currently do not have an image of his 1999 portrait of Francis Giacco.

Guo Hua Cai studied Fine Arts in China at the Shanghai Textile Engineering College and the Shanghai Jiaotong University. He then went to Japan and did a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters Degree in oil painting at Musashino Art University.

Adam Chang (Hong Jun Zhang) was born in Shanghai in 1960 and educated at Shanghai University's college of fine arts. He began exhibiting in the early 1980s and had his first solo exhibition in 1985. He was subsequently represented at major national exhibitions throughout China. In 1989, he was selected to join the Art Association of Shanghai: the youngest member in the history of the organisation. Chang migrated to Australia in 1997.

Born in China in 1960, Jun Chen graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1986, then worked as an art editor in book design and as a fine arts lecturer. During this time, he entered many art competitions, winning several prizes. He came to Australia in 1990 and obtained a Master of Fine Art from the Queensland University of Technology.

Wei Bin Chen was born in China in 1964. He graduated from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1987 and was a practising architect in China. He exhibited work in multiple group exhibitions across East Asia before immigrating to Australia in 1991.

Born in Zhongshan in 1969, Zhong Chen arrived in Australia in 1989. He studied in Adelaide for a Diploma of Visual Arts and has a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) from the University of South Australia. Since completing a Master of Fine Arts at London's Chelsea School of Art in 1998, he has undertaken a further exploration of traditional Chinese art and regularly incorporates Chinese subject matter into his paintings.

Born in China in 1967, Kordelya Zhansui Chi graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts from the Fine Arts Institute of Guangzhou. She now lives in Australia but continues her connection with China through her style and practices.

Chi was also in the Archibald in 1996 with two portraits, for which we currently don't have images.

Born in Beijing in 1946, Hong Fu was already well known in China, including a major show at the National Art Gallery in Beijing in 1988, before he moved to Australia in 1990.

Born in Beijing in 1957, Guan Wei graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at Bejing Capital University. He came to Australia in 1989.

Born in Shanghai, China in 1954, Pei Pei He arrived in Australia in 1987. She studied visual arts in China, training in traditional Russian and Chinese academy styles, then continued her studies in Australia, graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2010.

Born in China, He Huang studied painting and sculpture with a Chinese master who specialised in the Western style at Guangzhou University, where Huang was later a teacher himself. He arrived in Australia in 1988.

Born in China in 1962, Zai Kuang has a Bachelor and a Master of Visual Art (Painting) from the Central Academy of Arts & Design in Beijing. He taught art at Beijing University for ten years before coming to Australia in 1998. He has since completed a Master of Fine Art (Research) at Monash University in Melbourne in 2002.

Born in Beijing in 1982, Dapeng Liu was trained by his father to sketch from age four. Long fascinated by difference and similarity, he is drawn to blending these two great civilisations on canvas.

Born in Shanghai into a Russian-Jewish family, Jenny Sages came to Australia in 1948 at the age of 14. She has been a finalist 20 times since 1990; her 1995 portrait of Gene Sherman and family does not currently have an image.

Born in Shanghai in 1948, Jiawei Shen was an artist of considerable fame in China before he relocated to Australia in 1989.

Born in China in 1961, Song Ling graduated in 1984 from the China National Academy of Fine Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and was one of several important artists involved with the 1985 New Wave art movement in China. He migrated to Australia in 1988.

Born in China in 1949, Xu Wang is a graduate of the art teachers course at the Central Institute of Nationalities in Beijing where he trained as a traditional Chinese brush-and-ink painter. On arrival in Australia in 1989 he undertook further study, principally in oil, and now holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) and Masters in Fine Art from the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW.

Born in Tianjin in 1959, Yi Wang has a Bachelor of Art from the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts. After graduating in 1982, he started work as a senior art editor for one of China’s biggest-selling newspapers, The Evening Gazette of Tianjin, and in 1990, he set up the Shadow Art Gallery. His reputation as a portrait painter grew during the 1980s. He Wang moved to Sydney in 2006.

Born in Shanghai in 1957, Huihai Xie studied at Jiaotong University in Shanghai, graduating in 1984 with a Master of Arts (Painting). He began exhibiting in 1979. Xie arrived in Australia in 1989.

Born into an artist family in China, Apple Xiu Yin sees herself as a traveller journeying from an Eastern to Western culture and trying to find her own way in both. As a result, her art features both Eastern and Western influences. She graduated from Hornsby TAFE in 2009 with a Fine Arts Diploma.

Born in Beijing in 1953, Dalu Zhao was a professor at the Capital Normal University in Beijing. He migrated to Australia in 2001.

Born in Shanghai in 1952, Hongbin Zhao studied Fine Art at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He migrated to Australia in 1988.

Born in Dalian in 1962, Qiang Zhang graduated from the Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang. He migrated to Australia in 1990.

Born in China in 1963, Tianli Zu moved to Australia in 1988. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and a Master of Fine Arts and a PhD from Sydney College of Fine Arts at the University of Sydney.