Shuling Guo

Shuling Guo’s work emerges from personal memories of specific moments; holding her grandmother’s hand as she passed away, giving birth, and cradling her newborn daughter. At the same time, they address broader themes of transformation and regeneration, fragility and resilience. Minimal, soft and colorful, her visual language is deeply shaped by her upbringing in Chaosan, China, and her more recent experiences living in the United States. 

Guo’s work draws from a diverse array of sources: the vivid imagery or temple murals and statues, known for their symmetrical structures, bold colors and intricate narratives, the layered symbolism of medieval religious iconography, and Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium, a botanical collection she compiled during her time at Amherst Academy. The dried flowers preserved by Dickinson, with their resemblance to wounded and aging bodies, evoke a sense of decay and renewal that resonates deeply with her work. Together, these influences reflect cycles of beauty, decline, and rebirth, informing Guo’s exploration of the body and self as vessels of both vulnerability and strength, and reflecting cycles of life and death.

Shuling Guo received her BFA from the Oil Painting Department of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing in 2010. Guo had her first solo exhibition, Secret Fragrance, at Beyond Art Space in Beijing (2012). Since then, her work has been exhibited widely in Beijing, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, among other places. Recent exhibitions include her solo show Temple at Mindy Solomon Gallery  in Miami (2025), and the duo exhibition Our Currents Unleashed at Latitude Gallery in New York (2024). She has held two solo exhibitions at Fou Gallery in New York: 5—6 pm (2020), and Sotto Voce (2022). Her work was also featured by Platform Art in Autumn 2022, and selected for New American Paintings, Issue 172 (2024).