Press Release

ShanghART Gallery is honoured to present artist Xue MU’s first solo exhibition in China, There is A Garden, on view from 10 July to 30 August 2025, at the gallery’s M50 space in Shanghai. Taking ‘garden’ as the authentically embedded place between the mundane and the miraculous, the artist unfolds an unusual encounter that expands her conception of existence in the summer of 2005. This exhibition systematically presents her endeavoured explorations of experiencing the quotidian through painting, photography, installation, and more, reflecting on the circumstances of the gradually homogenised and diminished individual’s perceptible independence caused by the impact of technology and consumerism.

‘Garden’ in this exhibition, sensed as a field of botanical imagery, is a liminal space of a dynamic multidimensional Umwelt imbued with vitality, tension, and growth in order to evoke existential awareness to transcend experience. Each work is not only a carrier of the artist’s ineffable personal sensation, but also intertwines with the commonly shared, metaphorical visuals imprinted in the collective unconsciousness of hope and suffering. It encompasses the coordinates of the individual in time and space, allowing them to mirror, associate, and interpret. With the aid of technological force, some of the work subverts the trained visual inertia to tread a path for perceiving states that are more authentic and yet overly theorised.

In an era where technology deeply mediates sensory input becomes increasingly standardised, MU’s work presents an enclave for perception. She views artmaking as a channel for exploring the inner life essence and expanding the possibilities of life experience. Through a generative approach, she freely internalises the ambient energy, frequencies, living and non-living things, and ultimately transforms them into visual expressions that challenge habitual modes of apprehension. This exhibition invites viewers to step into a ‘garden of perception,’ temporarily setting aside the expected everyday experiences to explore the quintessence hidden in fragility and subtlety.

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About the Artist

Mu Xue is a visual artist based in Amsterdam and Berlin. Her multifaceted practice transits drawing, photography, site-specific installation, performance, and public art. She completed residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in 2012 and received numerous awards. Mu is a frequent guest lecturer at Dutch art academies and, from 2017 to 2023, tutored at the KABK. Her works span a broad range of collections and are internationally exhibited in galleries and museums such as De Appel Arts Centre, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, and Kunstverein Salzburg. Mu is frequently commissioned for public art projects across the Netherlands, for example, the permanent mural installation “Black Diamond_Panorama” at the Province House of Friesland.

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Also Exhibiting at ShanghART

About the Gallery

Founded in 1996, ShanghART Gallery is one of the first contemporary art galleries established in China. With spaces in Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore, ShanghART has been a driving force of the development of Chinese contemporary art for the past twenty years. Working closely together with over 40 artists, ShanghART regularly participates in the major international art fairs and collaborates with important art institutions in China and from all over the world.

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Shanghai Building 16, 50 Moganshan Road, Putuo District
ShanghART
Building 16, 50 Moganshan Road, Putuo District, Shanghai, China
+86 189 306 130 31
http://www.shanghartgallery.com

Opening hours
Tuesday - Saturday
11 am - 6 pm

Closed Sunday and Monday
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