Wei Qicong

Qicong Wei (b.1956)

Wei was born in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan known in China. But he grew up in a small Yunnan county with a single father when the elder Wei became branded a "rightist" during Mao's infamous Anti-Rightist campaign in 1957, and his parents divorced under the contemporaneous political environment. But Wei worked as an auto mechanic for four years before taking the first higher educational opportunity available when China re-opened college enrollment in late 1970s. Wei entered Simao Normal College, Yunnan Province, in 1978. After graduation, he spent years teaching in primary and high schools while creating his art. In 1989, the year he received the Gold Award at the Seventh National Fine Art Exhibition, Wei went for advanced studies at the Printmakers Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. In 1996, he spent two more years for graduate education at the Beijing Normal University. He joined the Fine Art Department at Jimei University, Xiamen, in 1992, and has been on the faculty there since.

He has exhibited widely domestically and internationally, and has won several of the country's major artistic awards. His prints are favorite collections for fine art galleries and museums.

Awards

1990: Excellence (First) Prize, First National Youth Print Exhibition, Shanghai, China

1989: Gold Prize, Seventh National Fine Art Exhibition, Beijing, China

1989: Excellence Prize, Contemporary Artworks of Mainland Chinese Youth Print Artists Exhibition, Taipei, Taiwan

Professional Standing

Associate Professor, School of Art Education, Jimei University, Xiamen, China

Member, China Fine Artists Association

Member of Board of Director, China Printmakers Association