Xu Zhen (Chinese 徐震), born in 1977 in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, China, is a

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...

artist. Xu Zhen's body of work, which includes photography, installation art and video, entails theatrical humor and social critique. His projects are informed by performance and conceptual art. Xu's work focuses on human sensitivity and dramatizes the humdrum of urban living.

Biography

Xu Zhen's earlier representative individual works include the video, ''Rainbow'' (1998), where an abstracted hand beats a man 's back until it burns red. ''Rainbow'' made Zhen the youngest Chinese artist to have participated in the main thematic exhibition of the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. The video, ''Shouting'' (1998), captures the fright and bewilderment of faces turned backwards on the crowded streets of Shanghai, after Xu Zhen suddenly bursts out screaming. The installation ''ShanghART Supermarket'' (2007) recreates a convenience store on-site: the shelves are crammed full of empty products, while the items, sold at their ordinarily marked prices, only have the external shells of their packaging.http://thelongmuseum.org/en/exhibition/overview/436dxA His recent pieces survey ancient and new art while fusing Chinese and Western cultures into large scale installations or into new art forms. ''European Thousand-Hand Classical Sculpture'' (2014) assembles 19 different Western classical sculptures of various forms; borrowing from the shape of the Thousand-Hand Guanyin (Bodhisattva) in Buddhist iconography. ''Physique of Consciousness'' (2011) is a video which comprises movements derived from dance, gymnastics, spiritual and cultural rituals.

Curation

Xu Zhen's curatorial experiments and engagement with an alternative art space, BizArt (closed in 2010), complement and extend practice. Aside from being an artist, Xu Zhen organizes various art activities and co-curates with other artists. Major exhibitions in Shanghai include ''Art For Sale'' (1999); ''Fan Mingzhen & Fan Mingzhu'' (2002); ''Dial 62761232-Courier Exhibition'' (2004); ''38 Solo Exhibitions'' (2006); ''The Real Thing: Contemporary from Art China'' (2007), Tate Liverpool; ''Bourgeoisified Proletariat'' (2009); and ''My Communism – Poster Exhibition'' (2011). He was also one of the creators of the online contemporary art forum, ''Art-Ba-Ba'', in 2006.

Museum and Biennale Exhibition

Xu Zhen has exhibited internationally at museums and biennales, such as,

(2001, 2005), Lyon Biennial (2013), Asia Pacific Triennial (2012), Guangzhou Triennial (2012),

The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of the ...

(New York, 2004), ICP (2004), Mori Art Museum (2005), PS1 (2006), Tate Liverpool (2007) etc. Recent exhibitions include Corporate-Xu Zhen (Produced by MadeIn Company), Kunsthaus Graz (Graz, Austria, 2015), Xu Zhen Solo Exhibition, Long Museum (Shanghai, China, 2015), Xu Zhen-Produced by MadeIn Company, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing, China, 2014), 14 Rooms, Fondation Beyeler (Basel, Switzerland, 2014), Art of Change (Hayward Gallery, London, 2012), 11 Rooms (Manchester International Festival, Manchester City Galleries, 2011), 15 Rooms,

Long Museum The Long Museum () is a private art museum in Shanghai, China, founded by Liu Yiqian and his wife Wang Wei. The museum has two locations in Shanghai: the Long Museum Pudong and Long Museum West Bund.Long Museum websiteAbout Long Museum/ref> In 2 ...

(Shanghai, China, 2015), Corporate, Graz Kunsthaus, (Graz, Austria, 2015), Bentu: Chinese Artists in a Time of Turbulence and Transformation, and

Fondation Louis Vuitton The Louis Vuitton Foundation ( French: ''Fondation d'entreprise Louis-Vuitton''), previously Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation (''Fondation Louis-Vuitton pour la création''), is a French art museum and cultural center sponsored by the group L ...

(Paris, France, 2016) etc. Xu Zhen won the prize for ‘Best Artist’ at the China Contemporary Art Award in 2004 and ‘Best Artist of the Year’ at the AAC Award in 2014. His work has been collected by many institutions and private collections worldwide including the

, Paris, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Daimler Collection (Berlin, Germany), The White Rabbit Collection (Chippendale, Australia), the Rubell Famil Collection, (Miami, USA), the

Musée d'Art Contemporain de Lyon The Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon is a museum devoted to contemporary art, located in the 6th arrondissement of Lyon, in the Cité Internationale, next to the cinema, in front of the Parc de la Tête d'Or. It had over 42,000 visitors in 2007. ...

(Lyon, France), the K11 (Shanghai) Collection, the DSL Collection, among others.

MadeIn Company

In 2009, Xu Zhen founded ‘MadeIn Company,’ a contemporary art creation corporate that plays off of the phrase "Made in China". In 2013, MadeIn Company launched the brand "Xu Zhen" and led MadeIn to expand into curatorial production, research and publications. In 2014, MadeIn Company founded MadeIn Gallery, a gallery dedicated to the promotion of international artists with an accent on contemporary culture development and communication. Located in M50 Shanghai contemporary art district, MadeIn Gallery aims to be a platform for creativity in China, giving access to the latest artworks of established artists as well as younger and lesser-known talents. MadeIn Gallery was featured in the China Focus Section of the Armory Show in New York in March 2014. On this occasion, detailed images of the series Under Heaven by Xu Zhen, commissioned artist of the Armory, were featured in all the visual promotional materials.

Selected solo exhibitions

;2015 *''Corporate'', Graz Kunsthaus, Graz, Austria *''In Light Of 25 Years – One of Us Is On the Wrong Side of History!'', Witte de With, Rotterdam, The Netherlands *''Xu Zhen Solo Exhibition, Long Museum'', Shanghai, China ;2014 *''Xu Zhen-Produced by MadeIn Company: Blissful As Gods'',

ShanghART Gallery ShanghART Gallery is founded in 1996 by Swiss gallerist Lorenz Helbling as one of the first contemporary art galleries established in China. Initially operating out of a hotel, it has since expanded to four gallery spaces, two in Shanghai, and ...

, Shanghai, China *''Careful Don’t Get Dirty'', Patrick Waldburger Gallery, Brussels, Belgium *''Prey'', Galerie

Nathalie Obadia Nathalie Obadia (born 14 March 1962) is a French art gallery owner. She specialises in contemporary art. Early life She was born in Toulouse, France. As a teenager, Nathalie Obadia completed an internship at Daniel Varenne, in Genova, and Adri ...

, Paris, France *''Xu Zhen-Produced by MadeIn Company'', ShanghART Singapore, Singapore *''Xu Zhen-A MadeIn Company Production'', Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China ;2013 *''The Most Important Thing Is Not the Contract'', OCT, Shanghai, China *''Turbulent'', Bund 18 Temporary Space, Shanghai China *''Movement Field – Xu Zhen Solo Exhibition'', produced by MadeIn Company, Long March Space, Beijing China *''Offsite：MadeIn Company'', Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada ;2012 *''Forbidden Castle'', Muzeum Montanelli, Prague, Czech Republic *''MadeIn Company'', Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China *''Sleeping Life Away'', Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris, France *''The Last Few Mosquitos, WHERE? '', Vancouver Canada ;2011 *''Action of Consciousness'', ShanghART Gallery & H Space, Shanghai *''Physique of Consciousness'', Long March Space, Beijing *''Physique of Consciousness'', Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland ;2010 *''Don’t Hang Your Faith on The Wall'', Long March Space, Beijing *''Seeing One's Own Eyes'', IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK *''There are new species! What do you suppose they are called? '', Fabien Fryns Fine Art, Los Angeles, U.S. *''Spread-by MadeIn'', ShanghART Beijing, Beijing, China ;2009 *''Spread—New Exhibition Produced by MadeIn'', ShanghART at Huaihai Rd 796, Shanghai, China *''MadeIn -- Seeing One's Own Eyes'' europalia.china, S.M.A.K., Gent, Belgium *''Lonely Miracle: Middle East Contemporary Art Exhibition'',

James Cohan Gallery James Cohan is a contemporary art gallery in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. History The gallery had a branch in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. It opened another in the former French Concession of Shanghai in 20 ...

, New York, USA *''Seeing One's Own Eyes—Middle East Contemporary Art Exhibition-Space'', ShanghART Gallery and ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai *''The Last Few Mosquitos'', Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK ;2008 *''Impossible is Nothing'', Long March Space, Beijing, China *''Xu Zhen, Folkert de Jong, Martha Colburn'',

, New York *''Just Did It'',

, New York ;2007 *''In Just the Blink of an Eye'',

with PERFORMA, New York *Art '38 Basel, Art Unlimited-''Xu Zhen 18 Days'' (at B3), Art Fair Switzerland ;2006 *''8848 – 1.86'', ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai *''8848 – 1.86'', Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands *''An Animal'', 2577 Longhua Road, Xuhui district, Shanghai ;2002 *''Careful, Don't Get Dirty'', Galerie Waldburger, Berlin, Germany *''A Young Man'', Bizart, Shanghai

References

External links

没顶公司
MadeIn Company website

MadeIn Gallery website
Art-Ba-Ba中国当代艺术社区
Art-Ba-Ba contemporary art forum
ShanghART Gallery
Gallery page of the artist

Works, biography, video clips, articles and reviews.

Parkett magazine Vol.96 about Xu Zhen
post
MoMA Interviews 2014
Performa 2007
Live performance, ''In Just a Blink of Eye''
Tate Collection
Mixed-media installation, ''8848 - 1.86''
Xu Zhen at 88MoCCA: The Museum of Chinese Contemporary Art on the Web
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xu, Zhen Living people Artists from Shanghai 1977 births Chinese contemporary artists Chinese performance artists