Red by Qiu Xiaofei

Qiu Xiaofei, Red, 2020, oil on linen, 200 cm × 300 cm (78-3/4" × 9' 10-1/8") © Qiu Xiaofei

Qiu Xiaofei

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b. 1977, Harbin, China

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A representative figure of China's New Generation artists, Qiu Xiaofei draws on the expressive possibilities of artmaking.

His paintings—along with related drawings, sculptures, and installations—evoke a dreamlike state of memory and awaken the potentials of perception that are hidden in the depths of the mind. Engaging with relationships between personal experience and history, Qiu takes an improvisational approach to creating compositions that can be quiet and controlled or wild and painterly. Through unconstrained creative acts within his artistic process, he paints works that extend beyond the realm of reality.

Qiu’s aesthetic concerns have evolved from representing remembered images to investigations of the direct act of painting. Developing his works intuitively and without premeditation, he combines extemporaneous gestures with fragments of figurative imagery. The resulting paintings offer alternations of surface and depth, and of visual abstractions and symbolic references. Qiu’s hybrid practice is not a purely aesthetic exploration; rather, he constantly draws external influences and techniques into his painting process. He employs various readymade objects to leave traces in his paintings, and in turn develops his compositions in response to these traces. These emerging forms and concepts spur the artist to make new choices, pushing his works into the unknown.

X-ray Reproduction by Qiu Xiaofei

Qiu Xiaofei, X-ray Reproduction, 2003, oil on canvas, 200 x 150 cm © Qiu Xiaofei

Almost 7 by Qiu Xiaofei

Qiu Xiaofei, Almost 7, 2005, acrylic on fiber glass, dimensions variable © Qiu Xiaofei

Qiu graduated from Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 2002. In 2003, he co-founded the N12 group with other graduates of CAFA, and together they have exhibited in shows held at CAFA Art Museum, Beijing (2003, 2004, 2005); C5 Gallery, Beijing (2006); Beijing Commune (2014); and Lin & Lin Gallery, Taipei (2014). Qiu’s work has been featured in other major group exhibitions in China and internationally, including Back, Museum of Contemporary Art Beijing (2001); Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland (2005); The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China, Tate Liverpool, United Kingdom (2007); New World Order: Contemporary Installation Art and Photography from China, The Groninger Museum, Groningen, the Netherlands (2008); Negotiation: the Second Today's Documents, Today Art Museum, Beijing (2010); ON | OFF: China’s Young Artists in Concept & Practice, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2013); My Generation: Young Chinese Artists, exhibited jointly by the Tampa Museum of Art, Florida and the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida (2014); Discipline with Master's Dignity - Teaching & Research, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing (2018); China Landscape, Taikang Space, Beijing (2019); Painting: Macro, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China (2020–2021); Italian Renaissance Drawings: A Dialogue with China, M Woods Museum, Beijing and co-organized by The British Museum, London (2021–2022); Common Ground, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2022); and M+ Sigg Collection: Another Story, M+, Hong Kong, (2023). Qiu has participated in numerous biennales, including the Chengdu Biennial, China (2005); Havana Biennial, Cuba (2009), the Venice Biennale (2011), and the Beijing Biennial (2022).

In 2006, the CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, organized Qiu’s one-artist exhibition, Heilongjiang Box, which featured his paintings of old photographs and depictions of childhood objects. The catalogue for Heilongjiang Box was enclosed in a cardboard box together with the playful and symbolically evocative inclusion of a marker and glass marbles, along with nostalgic autobiographical texts recounting Qiu’s memories of his early years growing up in Heilongjiang Province. The show was followed in 2009 by his one-artist exhibition Invisible Journeys at Doosan Art Center, Seoul. Invisible Journeys included sculpture, mixed-media installations, and oil paintings based on family snapshots and didactic photographs.

Over the following decade, Qiu moved from iconographic experiments in individual and collective memory to explorations of cultural psychology and the social unconscious as he embraced the serendipity and instability of the painting process. In 2013, Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum organized the solo exhibition Repetition in its main exhibition hall. Also in 2013, another one-artist exhibition of his work, Rauschenberg Said, “The Walking Stick is Longer than the Maulstick, after All” was held at Beijing Commune. Apollo Bangs Dionysus (2014) was exhibited at Pace Gallery, Beijing, and Double Pendulum (2016) was shown by Pace Gallery in New York. Pace Gallery, Hong Kong, exhibited Pine or Willow (2017), followed by the presentation of Fade Out (2018) in Seoul. In 2021, Pace Gallery, New York, exhibited Divination.

Green and Ropes by Qiu Xiaofei

Qiu Xiaofei, Green and Ropes, 2013, acrylic & mixed media on canvas mounted on wood, 201 cm x 165 cm (79-1/8" x 64-15/16") © Qiu Xiaofei

Wood On Blue Timber On Wood by Qiu Xiaofei

Qiu Xiaofei, Wood On Blue Timber On Wood, 2013 – 2014. Left: acrylic on canvas, wood, 26 cm x 23 cm. Right: oil on board, wood, 124 cm x 140.5 cm © Qiu Xiaofei

Qiu’s work is held in numerous public collections including Long Museum, Shanghai; M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong; M Woods Museum, Beijing; Start Museum, Shanghai; Taikang Art Museum, Beijing; TANK Shanghai; and Yuz Museum, Shanghai, among others.

Double Spiral by Qiu Xiaofei

Qiu Xiaofei, Double Spiral, 2016, printed cotton, linen, cotton, acrylic, watercolor, chalk and charcoal, 200 cm × 250 cm (78-3/4" × 8' 2-7/16") © Qiu Xiaofei

Roundabouts by Qiu Xiaofei

Qiu Xiaofei, Roundabouts, 2018, acrylic on linen, coloured cotton cloth, 200 cm × 200 cm (78-3/4" × 78-3/4") © Qiu Xiaofei

The Couch 91924

Qiu Xiaofei, The Couch, 2022, oil on linen, 120 cm × 120 cm (47-1/4" × 47-1/4") © Qiu Xiaofei

Dense Forest by Qiu Xiaofei

Qiu Xiaofei, Dense Forest, 2023-2024, oil on linen, 80 cm × 80 cm (31-1/2" × 31-1/2") © Qiu Xiaofei

Gazing on Mount Tai by Qiu Xiaofei

Qiu Xiaofei, Gazing on Mount Tai, 2022-2023, oil on linen, 200 cm × 200 cm (78-3/4" × 78-3/4") © Qiu Xiaofei