Guan Xiao (b. 1983, Chongqing, China) takes a playful approach to making sculptures, videos, and installations, identifying disparate relationships between unexpected materials to create a visual language that breaks historical and cultural boundaries alike. She often positions physical objects—such as industrial products and cultural artifacts—alongside images amassed from scrolling through the infinite universe of desktop and laptop screens. Her works generate cohesive textures between binaries sourced from contrasting and even conflicting worlds, and fuse old and modern, digital and analogue, and natural and artificial modes. Attuned to both possibilities and looming hazards, Guan Xiao’s prescient and puzzling arrangements critique the technological thrust of the present moment while providing indelible visions of our dislocated, rapidly approaching future.
Guan Xiao has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions worldwide including Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany (2019); Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2019); Kunsthalle Winterthur, Switzerland (2018); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2016); and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2016). Recent and notable group exhibitions include Though It’s Dark, Still I Sing, 34th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2021); Viva Arte Viva, 57th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2017); La vie moderne, 13th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France (2015); and Surround Audience, 2015 New Museum Triennial, New York. Her work is in the permanent collections of institutions including the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong; Kustmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland; Long Museum, Shanghai; Boros Collection, Berlin; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, Italy; and Start Museum, Shanghai. Guan Xiao lives and works in Beijing.
Courtesy David Kordansky Gallery
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