Xie Nanxing
Biography
Xie Nanxing (b. 1970, Chongqing, China, lives and works in Beijing, China) is a key figure in contemporary painting from China, internationally recognized for challenging painterly conventions through a practice that navigates the unstable boundary between abstraction and figuration.
Over the past three decades, Xie has developed a distinctive practice drawing on both Chinese and Western traditions, extending the formal and psychological dimensions of figurative painting. He first gained international recognition at the 48th Venice Biennale (1999), where he showed quasi-photorealist self-portraits and male nudes depicted in wounded, vulnerable states. In the early 2000s, he began working from blurred photographs and mediated source imagery, producing large-scale paintings that moved his practice toward abstraction—three of which were shown at Documenta 12 (2007). Since then, he has expanded his practice to include a broader range of approaches, including a “canvas print” technique, in which he paints onto a secondary canvas so that only the traces seeping through to the underlying surface remain. Rather than constructing fixed images, Xie treats painting as a temporal process—unfolding through fragmentation, rhythmic brushwork, and subtle shifts in form. Across his work, repetition functions not as duplication but as variation, allowing images to hover between recognition and dissolution. His paintings resist stable narrative or symbolic closure, foregrounding the act of seeing itself. For Xie, perception is neither transparent nor neutral but a site of tension, delay, and continual transformation.
Institutional solo exhibitions include Pingshan Art Museum, Shenzhen, China (2021); UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2018); Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, Germany (2005); and Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK (2003). His works are held in major private and public collections internationally, including the De Ying Foundation (China); Goetz Collection (Germany); K11 Art Foundation (Hong Kong, China); New Century Art Foundation (China); Novartis Collection (Switzerland); Rachofsky Collection (USA); Porsche Collection (Germany) and M+ Sigg Collection (Hong Kong, China/Switzerland).
DOWNLOADS
solo exhibitions
2026 Fugitive Figuration. Paintings 1994 -2026, Galerie Urs Meile, Zurich Ankerstrasse, Switzerland
2025 Eight Dreams, Petzel Gallery, New York, USA
2024 You Can’t See Me, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China
f o r a d e c a s a, Capitain Petzel, Berlin Germany
2023 Hello, Portrait !, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, UK
2022 Xie Nanxing: Adverb High Command, Petzel Gallery, New York, USA
2021 Mask and Shadow - Solo Exhibition of Xie Nanxing, Pingshan Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
2020 A Roll of the Dice, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China
2019 Xie Nanxing: A Gift Like Kung Pao Chicken, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, UK
2018 Spices, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2015 untitled: 3 ×, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China
2013 THE SECOND WHIP WITH A BRUSH, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland
2012
THE SECOND ROUND WITH A WHIP, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China
2010
STEPFATHER HAS AN IDEA! – Xie Nanxing, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland
STEPFATHER HAS AN IDEA! – Xie Nanxing, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China
2008
‘BIG SHOW’ – Xie Nanxing, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China
2005
Xie Nanxing Paintings, Kunstverein Hamburger Bahnhof, Hamburg, Germany
Xie Nanxing, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland
2003
Paintings 1999-2002, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
2000
Xie Nanxing, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland
1998
Xie Nanxing, Pulitzer Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1997
Ten Drops of Tears & Ten Self-Disguised Portraits – The Association Exhibition of Art Personality in Metropolis, Xie Nanxing studio, Chengdu, China
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
Anker Protocol 2.0 - A Place of Concealment, Galerie Urs Meile, Zurich Ankerstrasse, Switzerland
Football and Art. A Shared Passion, Museo Jumex, Mexico
2024
A Cloud in Trousers: Painting Today, WEST BUND MUSEUM, Shanghai, China
Shanshui: Echoes and Signals, M+ Museum, Hong Kong, China
Semi-Manual Era, GRVITY ART MUSEUM, Beijing, China
Liminal Stages: Explorations on Perception, Existence, and Techno-consciousness, Wind H Art Center, Beijing, China
New Artistic Styles of Contemporary Painting, The National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Beijing, China
THE SHAPE OF PERCEPTION, IRIS ART MUSEUM, Suzhou, China
2023
M+ Sigg Collection: Another Story, M+ Museum, Hong Kong, China
Sigg Prize 2023, M+ Museum, Hong Kong, China
A Theatre of Waiting, The Cloud Collection, Nanjing, China
A Leisurely Stroll – The Tenth Anniversary of The Long Museum, Long Museum West Bund, Shanghai, China
Painting Unsettled, UCCA Edge, Shanghai, China
2022
THE INFINITE CONVERSATION, 2022 BEIJING BIENNIAL, National Base for International Cultural Trade, Beijing, China
A Place for Concealment (2022), Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China
2021
Italian Renaissance Drawings: A Dialogue with China, M WOODS MUSEUM, Beijing, China
M+ Sigg Collection: From Revolution to Globalisation, M+ Museum, Hong Kong, China
The Generation of New Painting in SCFAI, Art Museum of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China
SNAPSHOT, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China
Minestrone, Galerie Urs Meile, Ardez, Switzerland
2020
Shifting, Pop-up Art Parcours, Galerie Urs Meile, Ardez, Switzerland
2020 - Song Art Inviation Exhibition, Song Art Museum, Beijing, China
Being of Evils, Hive Center For Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
Psychic Wounds: On Art & Trauma, The Warehouse Dallas, Dallas, USA
2019
Sleeping with a Vengeance, Dreaming of a Life, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Stuttgart,
Chinese Whispers 中国私语 - Recent Art from the Sigg Collection, MAK Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna, Austria
2017
PARADOXA, Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea - Casa Cavazzini, Udine, Italy
2016
Permanent Abstraction: Epiphanies of a Modern Form in Escaped Totalities, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, China
The 3rd Nanjing International Art Festival – “HISTORICODE: Scarcity & Supply”, Baijia Lake Museum, Nanjing, China
SLIPPAGES, Pearl Lam Galleries, Shanghai, China
Each to His Own: Li Wendong, Wei Xingye Collection Exhibition, OCAT Xi’an, Xi’an, China
Wet Dreams, Salt Projects, Beijing, China New Capital Huang Yu Collection Exhibition (2007-2016), Museum of Contemporary Art Chengdu, Chengdu, China
DISSENSUS AGITATION – The Painting to Language, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
TOO LOUD A SOLITUDE – Stalkers of Chinese Contemporary Art, Hive Center For Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2015
Nonfigurative, Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China
NOTES ON PAINTINGS, Blue Roof Museum of Chengdu, Chengdu, China
The Garden of Forking Paths —Tracks and Intersections of 15 Artists, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China
Breaking the Image - Methods in the Treatment of Imagery by Contemporary Artists from China, Si Shang Art Museum, Beijing, China
China 8, Museum Folkwang Essen, Lehmbruck Museum Duisburg, Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen, Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl, Osthaus Museum Hagen, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, NRW Forum Düsseldorf, Germany
2014
New Works #1, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal (OCAT), Shenzhen, China
2013
Building Bridges – Zeitgenössische Kunst aus China, Wolfsberg, Ermatingen, Switzerland
2012
Environment Spirit, 2012 Western China International Art Biennale, Tian Ye Art Museum, Yinchuan, China Omen – Chinese New Art, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China Face, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2010
Gerhard Richter and the Disappearance of the Image in Contemporary Art, Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina (CCCS), Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy
The Official Opening of Minsheng Art Museum – Thirty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art 1979–2009, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2009
Textbook: An Exhibition of Chinese Lively Paintings, Li-Space, Beijing, China
2008
Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, USA
Our Future: The Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation Collection, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing, China
2007
City-net Asia 2007, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
The Supplemental History – Contemporary Art from the Collection of GDMoA, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Energies – Synergy, Foundation DE 11 LIJNEN, Oudenburg, Belgium Documenta XII, Kassel, Germany
China Welcomes You... Desires, Struggles, New Identities, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria
Mahjong - Chinesische Gegenwartskunst aus der Sammlung Sigg, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria
Starting from the Southwest: Exhibition of Contemporary Art in Southwest China, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Strategy on Paper – Works on Paper Invitational, Square Gallery of Contemporary Art, Nanjing, China
2006
Mahjong – Chinesische Gegenwartskunst aus der Sammlung Sigg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
2005
Show Me...Catch Me...Sight Unseen. Xie Nanxing and Wang Xingwei, China Art Archives and Warehouse (CAAW), Beijing, China
Mahjong - Chinesische Gegenwartskunst aus der Sammlung Sigg, Kunstmuseum Bern, Berne, Switzerland
PICTORIAL DNA Made in China, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland
Cina. Prospettive d’Arte Contemporanea / China: As Seen by Contemporary Chinese Artists, Provincia di Milano, Spazio Oberdan, Milan, Italy
China-Contemporary Painting, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio, Palazzo Saraceni, Bologna, Italy
A Kind of Magic - The Art of Transforming, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland
1st Monpellier Biennial of Chinese Contemporary Art, Montpellier, France
2004
The Monk and the Demon – Contemporary Chinese Art, Musée d’art Contemporain, Lyon, France
All Under Heaven, Museum of Contemporary Art of Antwerp (MuHKA), Antwerp, Belgium
Le Printemps de Chine, CRAC ALSAC, Altkirch, France
2003
New Zone - Chinese Art, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
Open Sky, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China
Living Conditions, Guandong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
2002
Painting on the Move, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
1st Guangzhou Triennale, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Mirage, Suzhou Art Museum, Suzhou, China Chinese Contemporary Art, Museu de Arte Brasileira (MAB), São Paulo, Brazil
2001
TAKE PART II, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland
Abbild – Recent Portraiture and Depiction, Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria 1st Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu Modern Art Museum, Chengdu, China
TAKE PART I, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland
2000
Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
The Door of Century. China Contemporary Art 1979 – 1999, Chengdu Mordern Art Museum, Chengdu, China
Our Chinese Friends, ACC Galerie and Galerie der Bauhaus-Universität (in collaboration with Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing-Lucerne), Weimar, Germany
1999
d’APERTutto, La Biennale di Venezia, 48. Esposizione Internationale d’Arte, Venice, Italy
Innovations, China Art Archives & Warehouse (CAAW), Beijing, China
Time to Revive, Upriver Gallery, Chengdu, China
AWARDS
Chinese Contemporary Art Award (CCAA), 2000
Chinese Contemporary Art Award (CCAA), 1999