makelu

1954　April 8, Born in Shanghai, relocated with his Father in 1960 to Beijing. Ma enjoyed painting, music and literature as a child
1968　In his high school years, Ma met artists Wei Hai, Zhou Maiyou, Chen Fosheng and others
1969　Ma painted his first oil painting from nature
1970-72　Ma worked on the countryside for two years. Upon returning to the city, Ma worked in the food industry for two years, then became a mechanic for the next decade 
1971　Ma saw a repring of Monet and Seurat’s work in color, and was immediately drawn to impressionism. He copied Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte. Thereafter, Ma’s color palette brightened up.            
1972-74　Ma met Shi Xixi, Zheng Ziyan, Zhang Wei, Zhao Wenliang, Yang Yushu, Shi Zhenyu and others, with whom formed into the early No Name Group.
1974　Ma was enrolled in the art training class at the Worker’s Cultural Centre where he met Feng Guodong, Wang Aihe, Ma Desheng, Zhang Zhunli, a year Later he met Zhu Jinshi and other Star Art members.
　　　During the Cultural Revolution, The Central Academy of Fine Art called for applications. Ma applied, but had abandoned the opportunity due to failing to retrieve his personal profile from his work unit.
1974　Ma organized and participated in the first underground art exhibition of the No Name group.
1977　Applied for the stage art department at the Central Academy of Drama, and was refused of enrollment. Ma’s application to the Central Academy of Fine Art and the Central Academy of Art and Craft were also refused.
1979　Participated in the public exhibition of the No Name Group
1981　Participated in the second exhibition of the No Name Group
1984　Traveled to Kongdong Island in Yantai for 20 days, resigned from his job upon returning.
1985　Organized and participated the 10 artists group show of “Abstract Art Exhibition”,
　　　the exhibition was banned before it opened.
　　　In the same year, 33 Artists exhibition was also banned.
1985　Held the 7 Artists exhibition at the Beijing Diplomatic Compound, conversed with American visiting artist Robert Rauschenberg.
1986　Traveled to China’s southwest regions with Feng Guodong. Meanwhile, Zhang Wei, Li Shan, American journalist Marlow•hood riding Chiese made Changjiang 750 motorcycle to enter Tibet through Sichuan, due to mechanical failures, they could not meet in Sichuan. 
1988　January, traveled to Germany, then to Sweden, Denmark and reached New York at the end of the year. His work participated in the works on paper exhibition by Chinese and American artists at the St Harbor cultural Centre, New York, Staten Island.
1989　Worked as an artist in residence for three months in Maine upon receiving an art scholarship from the Skowhagon school of painting and sculpture, where Ma met British artist John Walker, American artist William King, Canny Fox and Chicago artist Jacob Lawrence
1989　Enrolled in the art department of the Imperial State College of the State University of New York
1990　Ma’s family moved to Queens, New York
1992　Participated in the 9 Contemporary Chinese artists exhibition in Lodz Artists Museum, in Poland
1993　Ma participated in Red Star Over China curated by Ni Jun at SOHO gallery.
1993-95　Ma used mixed media to create the Bada series that was shown in Soho New York, Buffalo, and Vancouver, Canada
1997　Exhibited with Chen Danqing, Feng Lianghong in New York
1998-2000 Ma completed over 30 pieces of Oil painting on Brooklyn. In the same period, he completed the Lotus Scroll.
2005　Ma held his solo exhibition at the Crystal foundation gallery in New York where he exhibited the work Lotus Scroll
2005　Invited by professor Bing Yi at the University of Buffalo and Gao Minglu at the university of Pittsburg to give a talk on the No Name Group from 1970s to1980s and the context in which art was made in Beijing.
2006　February, Ma completed a nearly 60 thousand words volume called the No Time Years – a book on the memoires of Beijing’s early phase of avant-garde art.
2006　April, Ma returned to China, and began to organize archival materials on the No Name Group with Gao Minglu, an art historian and professor at the University of Pittsburg. He Organized the traveling exhibition of the No Name Group at TRA gallery in Bejing, Deshan Art Space, Guangzhou Art Museum, Shanghai Zendai Art Museum. In October, moved his family back to Beijing.
2007　Father and Son passed away respectively.
2008　Curated the exhibition, Cross-Reference,11 artists from New York, at Shuimu Art Space in Beijing’s 798 Art District
　　　His artwork participated in the traveling exhibition 30 Years of Chinese Abstract Art to Spain
　　　Artwork participated Art and Chinese Revolution at the gallery of Asia Society in New York
　　　Artwork participated in Apartment Art Exhibition in 798 Contemporary Art Space in Beijing
　　　Artwork participated in Group Exhibition curated by Peng Feng at Yuan Art Center
2009　Ma’s artwork participated in the Abstract Art – Five artists, at Shuimu Contemporary Art Space in 798 Art District, Beijing
　　　Artwork participated in Yipai exhibition, curated by Gao Minglu at Today Art Museum
2010　Curated both exhibitions Spring equinox and Seal point Harbor of Yuan Art Museum’s inauguration, invited John Walker to contribute in a curatorial essay.
　　　Artwork Lotus Scroll was selected by former curator of the Venice Biennale Achille Bonito Oliva in the exhibition, The Great Selestial Abstraction Above, National Art Gallery of China, Yuan Art Museum.

Collected by: China National Museum、Guangdong Art Museum、Shanghai Himalaya Art Museum、Art Beatus Gallery, Vancouver
Deshan Art Space And private collections