Overview

I have been doing ceramics for about eight years. Before, I used to paint on silk. After my first solo exhibition ended, and before the beginning of my second solo show, I was thinking if there were any other possibilities. The paintings on silk lean more towards pure visuality. During this period, I was constantly studying the light and colors as perceived by the human retina and how these elements eliminate our other perceptions. Once I achieved this, I began again to reflect on the importance of materiality and substance. Because when painting on silk, one can never paint black but only colour - there is thus no end.

 

— Xie Fan

Having concluded a period of exploring the perceptibility of light and color through paintings on silk, Xie Fan embarked on a journey to rediscover the origins of painting through alternative support for the painted image, aiming at leaving traces of time from a contemporary perspective. Xie Fan attempting to take the language of painting as a subject to reflect on its resonance with nature and history. The artist fires these clay panels like artificial rocks; while the painting process is innovative, it recalls a time of the past. 

 

Xie Fan (b. 1983, Jiangyou, Sichuan Province, China) received his BFA from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (SFAI) in 2005. Recent solo exhibitions include 'Various Fires', Académie Conti (Vosne-Romanée, France, 2024); 'Dionysus‘s Screen', Galerie Marguo (Paris, France, 2023); 'Sediment', Sifang Art Museum, Tongren Road Space (Shanghai, China, 2022); 'Back To The Footlights Tomorrow', WHITE SPACE BEIJING (Beijing, China, 2014). Recent group exhibitions include 'Night is the Shadow of the Earth', Wind H Art Center (Beijing, China, 2023); 'A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place', BlLUNT SOCIETY (Shanghai, China, 2023); 'Silkroad on the Moonlight', Gowolhun (Seoul, South Korea,2017); 'Mountain Sites: Views of Laoshan', Sifang Art Museum (Nanjing, China, 2016); The Moscow Biennale, All-Russia Exhibition Centre, VDNKh (Moscow, Russia, 2015); 'Absolute Collection Guideline', Sifang Art Museum (Nanjing, China, 2015). Xie Fan currently lives and works in Beijing and Chengdu.  

Biography

Born in 1983 in Jiangyou, Sichuan, China

Lives and works in Beijing and Sichuan, China

 

Education

 

2005 

Graduated from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Sichuan, China

 

Solo Exhibitions

 

2024

Académie Conti, 'Various Fires', Vosne-Romanée, France

2023

Galerie Marguo, ‘Dionysus‘s Screen’, Paris, France

2022

Sifang Art Museum, ‘Sediment’, Shanghai, China

2016

Lin & Lin Gallery, ‘One and A Half Years’, Taipei

2014

WHITE SPACE BEIJING, ‘Back to the Footlights Tomorrow’, Beijing, China

2012

A4 Contemporary Arts Center, ‘A4 Young Artist Experimental Season 2nd Round Exhibition’, Chengdu, China

2012  WHITE SPACE BEIJING, ‘The Layers’, Beijing, China
2011  Mapping Asia, ‘Xie Fan’, Beijing, China

 

Group Exhibitions

 

2024

LDMS Galleria M, 'Gleaming : The Twin Flames', Shanghai, China

2023

Galerie Marguo, ‘Art Paris 2023’, Paris, France

 

Blunt Society, ‘A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place’, Shanghai, China

2022

Dongyi Art Gallery, ‘Epic Everyday: Urban Life and Public Space in Chengdu’, Chengdu, China

2019 

WHITE SPACE BEIJING, ‘A White Space Odyssey’, Beijing, China

2017

Gowolhun, ‘Silkroad on the Moonlight’, Seoul, South Korea

 

A Thousand Plateaus Art Space, ‘Spring Discovery 2017’, Chengdu, China

 

Yinchuan Museum of Contemporary Art, ‘Reading the Raindrops-Western Artists Documenta’, Yinchuan, China

2016 

Wangying Art Museum, ‘Life Forest’, Shijiazhuang, China

 

Taikang Space, ‘Ghost In Flash: Post- photography in China’, Beijing, China

 

Gallery Su, ‘Unflattening’, Seoul, Korea

 

Sifang Art Museum, ‘Mountain Sites: Views of Laoshan’, Nanjing, China

 

China Art Museum, ‘Wu Yu × Fang Yan’, Shanghai, China

 

SPSI ART MUSEUM, ‘Transcendence’, Shanghai, China

 2015

All-Russian Exhibition Centre, ‘Moscow Biennale’, Moscow, Russia

 

SIFANG ART MUSEUM, ‘Excellent Chinese Painter, Satisfaction Guaranteed Liao Guohe’, Nanjing, China

 

Tokyo Gallery, ‘In Between Sceneries: Intuition and Experience’, Beijing, China

2014 

Lin & Lin Gallery, ‘Wormhole – Geo – Attraction’, Taipei

 

WHITE SPACE BEIJING, ‘Memo II’, Beijing, China

2013 

Suzhou Art Museum, ‘Yan Wenliang Art Award’, Suzhou, China

2012 

Lin & Lin Gallery, ‘A City of Others’, Taipei

 

CAFA Art Museum, ‘CAFAM Future Exhibition – Sub – phenomenon: Ecology Report of Chinese Young Art’, Beijing, China

2011

Sakshi Gallery, ‘Essence of Memory’, Taipei

 

L’Art Gallery, ‘New Colour’, Chengdu, China

2010

Mercator Foundation, ‘Das Ich Im Anderen’, Essen, Germany

 

 

Works
Video