Biography
Tony Guo (b. 1999) is a painter born in Aotearoa New Zealand who grew up in Northeast China. He migrated to Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland in 2012 by himself, spending his teen years with host families while adapting to multiculturalism. Vested in modes of figurative oil paintings, Guo’s work projects queer allegory in a psycho-theatre, as moments of whimsy mask a journey into a captive dilemma.
Education
2022 Master of Visual Arts with First Class (Honours), AUT
2020 Bachelor of Visual Arts, AUT
Solo Exhibitions
2026 Queue, Season Aotearoa, Auckland
2025 Swan Crash, Season Aotearoa, Auckland
2023 Sand, Jhana Millers Gallery, Wellington
Dogtooth, Paper Anniversary Gallery, Auckland
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 Hero Parade, Season Aotearoa, Auckland
Adam Portraiture, New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Wellington
2024 Delphian, Unit One Gallery, London
Kith and Kin, Season Aotearoa, Auckland
duck duck loose, Meanwhile Gallery, Wellington
2023 Aotearoa Art Fair, Paper Anniversary Gallery, Auckland
Summer, Melanie Roger Gallery, Auckland
The Dinner Party, RM Gallery, Auckland
2021 Beyond Borders, Beresford Square, Auckland
2020 Layers: Filling the Void, Pah Homestead, Auckland
2019 Accept Each Word Spoken with Love, Northart Gallery, Auckland
Performance
2026 Space Drag, Xin Ji and Tony Guo, Auckland Art Gallery
Awards
2026 The Arts Foundation, Springboard Award
2023 NZ Painting and Printmaking Award, Main Painting Prize
Molly Morpeth Canaday Award, Merit Award
Cleveland National Art Award, Youth Artist Award
2022 Walker & Hall Waiheke Art Award, Michael Evans Award
2020 Emergent: See, Runner-Up Award
2017 National Youth Art Award, Breakthrough Award
Reviews
2026 Issue115, Art Collector Magazine
2025 Tony Guo: The Sweet Unbearable: Samuel Te Kani, Issue 115, Takahē Magazine
2024 Issue 341, Art Monthly Australasia
2023 The Absurd Theatre, Issue 199, Spring 2023, Art News Aotearoa
Issue 5, Ratworld Magazine
Publications
2023 Tracing the Absurd: Queer Bodies of a Painted Allegory (Short Form Summary), Vol. 2 No. 2 (2023): Rainbow Special Issue