Tony Guo

Tony Guo was born in Tāmaki Makaurau and grew up in Northeast China. He returned to Aotearoa on his own in 2012, living with host families throughout his teenage years. Centring on oil painting, his practice investigates notions of embodied history and queer survival. He employs absurdism to create works in which moments of whimsy mask or stretch existential anguish. His paintings often depict figures in apparently specific situations, yet these resist conventional narrative development or explanation. Guo holds a Master of Visual Arts with First Class Honours from Auckland University of Technology. In 2023, he won a Merit Prize in the Molly Morpeth Canaday Award and the Main Painting Prize at the New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Awards. He is the recipient of a 2026 Springboard Award from the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi, which includes mentorship with 2025 Laureate Séraphine Pick.