Xu Zhen is a Shanghai-based artist.

Biography

Xu Zhen's art-making has crossed over various disciplines, from installation, photography, video to performance and painting. Executed with a critical intelligence, low-tech subtlety and often in forms of theatric pranks, Xu’s work focuses on human sensitivity (Rainbow, 1998; In Just a Blink of an Eye, 2005–07) and dramatizes the humdrum of urban living (ShanghArt Supermarket, 2007). His recent pieces have employed more provocative lexicons and social interventions so as to confront sociopolitical issues and taboos within the context of contemporary China (8848 - 1.86, 2005).

Over his decade’s long career, Xu Zhen has exhibited internationally, at museums and biennales, such as, Venice Biennale

Venice Biennale

The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...

 (2001, 2005), The Museum of Modern Art (New York, 2004), ICP (2004), Mori Art Museum (2005), PS1 (2006), Tate Liverpool (2007), etc. Xu Zhen’s curatorial experiments and engagement with an alternative art space and a website has complements and extends his conceptual practices.

Xu Zhen lives and works in Shanghai and is represented by ShanghART gallery in Shanghai and James Cohan gallery New York

James Cohan Gallery

The James Cohan Gallery is one of the prominent contemporary art galleries based in New York. Since 2008, it has also had premises in Shanghai.- History :...

.

Solo exhibitions

2008

• Impossible is Nothing, Long March Space, Beijing, China
• Xu Zhen, Folkert de Jong, Martha Colburn, James Cohan Gallery
  James Cohan Gallery
  The James Cohan Gallery is one of the prominent contemporary art galleries based in New York. Since 2008, it has also had premises in Shanghai.- History :...
  
  , New York
• Just Did It, James Cohan Gallery
  James Cohan Gallery
  The James Cohan Gallery is one of the prominent contemporary art galleries based in New York. Since 2008, it has also had premises in Shanghai.- History :...
  
  , New York

2007

• In Just the Blink of an Eye, James Cohan Gallery
  James Cohan Gallery
  The James Cohan Gallery is one of the prominent contemporary art galleries based in New York. Since 2008, it has also had premises in Shanghai.- History :...
  
  with PERFORMA, New York
• Art '38 Basel, Art Unlimited-Xu Zhen 18 Days (at B3), Art Fair Switzerland

2006

• 8848 - 1.86, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai
• 8848 - 1.86, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• An Animal, 2577 Longhua Road, Xuhui district, Shanghai

2002

• Careful, Don't Get Dirty, Galerie Waldburger, Berlin, Germany
• A Young Man, Bizart, Shanghai

External links

• ShanghART Gallery Gallery page of the artist
• James Cohan Gallery Works, biography, video clips, articles and reviews.
• Performa 2007 Live performance, In Just a Blink of Eye
• Tate Collection Mixed-media installation, 8848 - 1.86
• Xu Zhen at 88MoCCA: The Museum of Chinese Contemporary Art on the Web