Xu Bing 徐冰

Biography

Xu Bing is widely recognized as one of the leading conceptual artists of language and semiotics working today. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, he is celebrated for his “capacity to contribute importantly to society, particularly in printmaking and calligraphy.”

Born in Chongqing, China in 1955, Xu grew up in Beijing where he studied printmaking at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Trained as a printmaker, Xu is informed by the Cultural Revolution, Chan Buddhism, and his keen interest in the relationship between meaning and words, writing, and reading. He has famously re-invented Chinese characters and the English alphabet, rendering Chinese nonsensical and English into legible Chinese characters, effectively challenging comprehension of both.

One of his best-known works, Book from the Sky (1987–1991), earned Xu international recognition in the 1980s. The work is a massive installation of hundreds of volumes and scrolls printed with 4,000 imagined Chinese characters, which were cut by hand into wood printing blocks. Describing his art practice, Xu explains that his works “are all linked by a common thread, which is to construct some kind of obstacle to people’s habitual ways of thinking—what I call the ‘cognitive structures’ of the mind.”

Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the British Museum in London, among other major institutions. In addition, Xu Bing has shown at the 45th and 51st Venice Biennales; the Biennale of Sydney and the Johannesburg Biennale amongst other international exhibitions.

Grants and Prizes

Southern Graphics Council Lifetime Achievement Award

International Association of Art Critics Award for “Best Installation or Single Work of Art in a Museum, New England”

The Youth Friends Award, NYC

Artes Mundi Prize

American Academy in Berlin Coca-Cola Fellowship

Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize

MacArthur Award

Pollock-Krasner Foundation Prize

ArtPace Foundation Resident Artist

Currently						Lives and works in Beijing and New York
1955						Born in Chongqing, China

EDUCATION
1981						MFA Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing
SOLO EXHIBITIONS AND PROJECTS
2018						Xu Bing: Language and Nature, Ink Studio, Beijing, China
						Xu Bing: Thought and Method, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2017						Xu Bing, The United Art Museum, Wuhan, Hubei, China
						Language & the Art of Xu Bing, Museu de Arte de Macau, Macau, China performing ART, Oil Street Artspace, Hong Kong, China
2016						Xu Bing: Dragonfly Eyes (Trailer), The Frye Art Museum, Seattle, USA
						Traveling to the Wonderland, Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park, Beijing, China Xu Bing: Book from the Ground, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, London, UK Xu Bing: Book from the Sky, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas, USA
2015						Background Story: A New Approach to Landscape Painting, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
						Writing Between Heaven and Earth, Florida International University, Frost Art Museum, Miami, Florida, USA Things Are Not What They First Appear, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, USA Bird Language. The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, United Kingdom Phoenix 2015, 56th International Venice Biennale, All the World's Futures, Venice, Italy Book from the Ground Concept Store, K11 Art Space, Hong Kong, China
2014						The Language of Xu Bing, LACMA, Los Angeles, USA
						Metamorphosis: The Art of Xu Bing, Asia Society Hong Kong Center, Hong Kong, China Phoenix: Xu Bing at the Cathedral, The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, New York, USA Xu Bing Retrospective, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan Research Exhibition on Background Story, Inside Out Art Museum, Beijing, China Forest Project of Xu Bing and Children, National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan Background Story: Nan Shan Cui Ping, Long Museum, Shanghai, China
2013						Traveling to the Wonderland, John Madejski Garden, Victoria and Albert Museum, London,UK
						Xu Bing: Landscape Landscript, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK Nine Deaths, Two Births: Xu Bing's Phoenix Project, Smithsonian Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington DC, USA Living Word, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2012						Xu Bing: Phoenix, MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts, USA Book from the Ground: From Point to Point, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China
						Xu Bing: Book from the Sky to Book from the Ground, Eslite Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan Xu Bing: Square Word Calligraphy, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York, USA The Art of Rewriting China, Carlsten Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Steven Point, Steven Point, Wisconsin, USA Tobacco Project 4, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA Forest Project & Book from the Ground, 30th San Paulo Biennial, San Paulo, Brazil
2011						Square Word Calligraphy Classroom, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, USA
						Where does the dust itself collect? Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York, USA Tobacco project 3, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA Living Word 3, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, USA An Installation by Xu Bing: Background Story 7, British Museum, London, UK
2010						Phoenix Project, Baogang Stage, Expo 2010 Shanghai, Shanghai, China
						Xu Bing: Aerial Phoenix Project, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2009						Xu Bing: Forest Project Exhibition, He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
						Xu Bing: The Path of Repetition and the Imprint, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China Reading Space: The Art of Xu Bing, Clifford Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, USA
2008						Xu Bing, Middlebury College Museum of Art, Vermont, USA
						Xu Bing, Albion Gallery, London, UK Xu Bing Selected Work, 1987-2007 - Grossman Artist Solo Exhibition, Richard A. and Rissa W. Grossman Gallery, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, USA Picture Equality: Xu Bing's New Ways of Seeing, Sawhill Gallery, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA
2007						"Book from the Sky" to "Book from the Ground" - The Book Works of Xu Bing, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA
2006						Xu Bing Special Exhibition, Suzhou Museum, Suzhou, China
						Installation of Any Opinions, lobby of Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA
2005						Ghosts Pounding the Wall － Xu Bing's Work, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2004						Xu Bing: The Glassy Surface of a Lake, Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin, USA
						Xu Bing Tobacco Project: Shanghai, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China Xu Bing, Yokohama Portside Gallery, Yokohama, Japan Xu Bing in Berlin, Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Berlin, Germany Xu Bing: El Pozo de la Verdad/The Well of Truth, Sala La Gallera, Valencia, Spain Xu Bing: Three Installations, Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
2003						Xu Bing, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, UK
						Xu Bing, The 14th Fukuoka Asian Culture Prizes 2003 Grand Price Commemorative Art Exhibition, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan Xu Bing, Eslite Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan Book from the Sky installation, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
2002						Myers School of Art: Faculty Exhibition: Xu Bing: Installation, Emily Davis Gallery, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA
						Classroom Calligraphy, Daryl Reich Rubenstein Gallery, Sidwell Friends School, Washington D.C., USA Xu Bing, Commons Gallery, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA Xu Bing: Living Word 2, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
2001						Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., USA
						Xu Bing: Prints and Books, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, Oregon, USA Xu Bing: One-Man Show, Eslite Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan Xu Bing: Reading Landscape, North Carolina Museum of Art, North Carolina, USA Xu Bing, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
2000						The Tobacco Project: A Series of Installations Created by Xu Bing, The Duke Homestead & Tobacco Museum, and The Perkins Library Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina，USA
						Installation of Lost Letters at 52. Frankfurter Buchmesse, Frankfurt, Germany A Book from the Sky & Classroom Calligraphy, National Gallery of Prague, Czech Republic
1999						Calligraphy for the People: A Site Specific Installation, Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine
1998						Xu Bing: Square Word Poetry, Ethan Cohen Fine Art, New York, USA
						Xu Bing: Introduction to Square Word Calligraphy, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA Xu Bing: Panda Zoo, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, USA Xu Bing: Cultured Animal, Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Xu Bing: Recent Projects, California Institute for the Arts, Valencia, California, USA
1997						The Net: A Collaborative Installation by Xu Bing, Tarble Arts Center, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois, USA
						An Installation by Xu Bing: Another Language of Art, Allen Priebe Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA Xu Bing: Square Word Calligraphy, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong, China Xu Bing, Toyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Classroom Calligraphy, Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, Mallorca, Spain Xu Bing: Lost Letters, Asian Fine Arts Factory, Berlin, Germany Installation by Xu Bing, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, UK Xu Bing, Galería Charpa, Valencia, Spain
1996						Xu Bing: A Case of Transference, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, New York, USA
1996						Xu Bing: Learn Square Words, Marstall Performance Centre, Munich, Germany
						Xu Bing: A Book from the Sky, University Art Museum, The State University of New York at Albany, New York
1995						Xu Bing, Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, USA
						Xu Bing: Post Testament Installation, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA Xu Bing: Language Lost, Huntington Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Xu Bing: Recent Project, MFA Graduation Exhibit, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota, USA Xu Bing, Dille Center for the Arts, Moorhead State University, Moorhead, Minnesota, USA A Case Study of Transference 2, Yongfeng Hogpen, Beijing, China
1994						Xu Bing: Recent Work, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, New York, USA
						Xu Bing: Cultural Negotiations, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California, USA Xu Bing: Experimental Exhibition (later called A Case Study of Transference), Hanmo Art Center, Beijing, China
1993						Xu Bing: A Home Away from Home, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, North Dakota
						Xu Bing: Le Livre de Ciel, La Galerie Bellefroid, Paris, France
1992						Xu Bing: The First Exhibition of His Solo Exhibition Series, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA
1991						Three Installations by Xu Bing, Elvehjem Museum of Art (now Chazen Museum of Art), Madison, Wisconsin, USA
						Xu Bing, Chinese Modern Art Center, Osaka, Japan Xu Bing: Book from the Sky, DF Fong & Spratt Galleries, San Jose, California, USA Xu Bing, Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1990						Exhibition of Xu Bing’s Prints, Lung Men Art Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
1988						Xu Bing Prints, China Art Gallery (now National Fine Art Museum of China), Beijing Xu Bing Prints Exhibition, Lung Men Art Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017						Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, Solomon R. Guggenheim, New York, USA
						A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains: Blue–green Landscape Paintings from across Chinese History, Palace Museum, Beijing, China 57th Venice Biennale Collateral Event-Memory and Contemporaneity, Arsenale, Tese 98-99, Venice, Italy Imaginary Asia, Nam June Paik Art Center, Gyeonggi do, Korea
2016						Shan Shui Within, Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, Shanghai, China MashUp: The Birth of Modern Culture, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2015						The Translator's Voice, MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo, Vigo, Spain
						All the World’s Futures, 56th International Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy New Contemporary, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA First Look: Collecting Contemporary At the Asian, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, USA
2014						Out of Character: Decoding Chinese Calligraph— Selections from the Collection of Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA Whorled Exploration, Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014, Kochi, India
2013						Rewriting the Landscape: India and China, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea Ink Art: the Past as Present in Contemporary China, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, USA
2012						Print/Out, MoMA, New York, USA
						The Printed Image in China, 8th-21st Century, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA Book from the Sky, Arts of China Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA Out of Character: Decoding Chinese Calligraphy, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, USA
2011						Shan Shui — Poetry without Sound, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Luzern, Switzerland
2010						Fresh Ink: Ten Takes on Chinese Tradition, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
						The Constructed Dimension – 2010 Chinese Contemporary Art Invitational Exhibition, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China The Printed Image in China: From the 8th to the 21st Centuries, British Museum, London, UK
2009						4th Fukuoka Asian Triennial, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
						The China Project – Three Decades: The Contemporary Chinese Collection, Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Queensland, Australia
2008						Text/Message: Book by Artists, Medtronic Gallery, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
						China's ReVision, Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany Form, Idea, Essence, Rhythm: Contemporary East Asian Ink Painting, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan Art and China's Revolution, Asia Society Museum, New York, USA Accelerate: Chinese Contemporary Art, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, USA Half-Life of a Dream: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Logan Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, USA Synthetic Times: Media Art China 2008, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
2007						’85 New Wave: The Birth of Chinese Contemporary Art, The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing
						Automatic Update, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA Chinglish, Contemporary Hong Kong Art Gallery, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, China
2006						Moment by Moment: Meditations of the Hand, the North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA
						Shu: Reinventing Books in Contemporary Chinese Art, China Institute Gallery, New York, USA Traveled to The Seattle Asian Art Museum, Seattle, USA; Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, USA Belief: Singapore Biennale 2006, National Gallery Singapore, Singapore China Now, Sammlung Essl Kunst der Gegenwart, Klosterneuburg, Vienna Brush and Ink: the Chinese Art of Writing, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA Found in Translation: An Exhibition of Artist Books and Multi-Media Work, San Francisco Center for the Book, San Francisco, California, USA
2001						Artists’ Books: Highlights from the Kohler Art Library, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
						Give & Take, Victoria and Albert Museum and Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
1998						Cinco continentes y una ciudad, Museo de la Ciudad de México, Mexico City, Mexico
						Inside Out: New Chinese Art, The Asia Society Museum and PS1, New York, USA
1996						Origin and Myths of Fire: New Art from Japan, China and Korea, the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan
1993						45th Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy
1992						Looking for Tree of Life: A Journey to Asian Contemporary Art, the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan
1989						China/Avant-Garde, China Art Gallery, Beijing, China