Wang Guangyi is a Chinese artist. He is known as a leader of the new art movement that started in China after 1989, and for his Great Criticism series of paintings which use images of propaganda from the Cultural Revolution (1966 - 1976) and contemporary brand names from western advertising. Wang Guangyi was born in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province in 1957. Wang's father was a railway worker in north-eastern China. After several failed attempts, he enrolled at Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts. He graduated from the oil painting department of the academy in 1984. He lives and works in Beijing, China.