Guan Xiao (b. 1983, Chongqing, China) takes a playful approach to her sculpture, video, and installation artworks. She creates a visual language that breaks through historical and cultural boundaries by establishing diverse relationships between a variety of rich materials, and using collage to blend classical art with industrial manufacturing to build a unique form of contemporary art. She often juxtaposes 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 fascinating arrangements critique the technological thrust of the present moment while providing indelible visions of our dislocated, rapidly approaching future.

From Leaves to Shields, an exhibition of new sculptures by Guan Xiao, is on view at our Los Angeles gallery from May 13 through June 16, 2023. Guan Xiao has also 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 Post-Capital, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2022); 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; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland; Long Museum, Shanghai; Grand Duke Jean Museum of Modern Art (MUDAM), Luxembourg; Boros Collection, Berlin; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, Italy; and Start Museum, Shanghai. Guan Xiao lives and works in Beijing.