Artists Represented -- Xu Bing

Introduction to New English Calligraphy, 1994-1996 by Xu Bing

The basic idea is to create a classroom in the gallery. Each desk has a small container of ink, brush and a elementary calligraphy book, created by myself. You will see that the book is a teaching tool for learning calligraphy and the words will have a square word style resembling Chinese strokes. The square words will look Chinese but not be understood by Chinese yet will be understandable for western people because in fact the square words are English. The audience can try to learn these words by following the "Elementary New English Calligraphy Instruction Video". When people try to recognize and write these words, they begin a process of having to forcefully and constantly readjust their ingrained thinking. During this process of readjustment and transformation, their former concepts are powerfully replaced and attacked. people need to have their routine thinking attacked in this way. While undergoing this process of strange and yet familiar (the strangeness comes from within oneself) transformation one can enter a realm never experienced before.

Education
1987	MFA Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2010	Art HK 2010, Art Beatus, Hong Kong
2001	Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.. (cat.) Xu Bing: Prints and Books, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, OR. Xu Bing, Reading Landscape, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC. (brochure) Xu Bing, Xu Bing- One-man Exhibition, Cherng Piin Gallery, Taipei,Taiwan
2000	Xu Bing Book-Ends: Imag "in" ing the Book - The Work of Xu Bing, New York State University at Albany, Albany, NY. Xu Bing, Book from the Sky and Classroom Calligraphy - National Gallery of Prague, Czech Republic. (cat.) Xu Bing, Tobacco Project, Duke University, Durham, NC. (cat.)
1999	Xu Bing, Bates College Museum of Art, Maine
1998	Xu Bing, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York. (brochure) Xu Bing, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York. Xu Bing, The Wood Street Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (brochure) Xu Bing: Recent Projects, California Institute for the Arts, Valencia. Xu Bing, Gallery of University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
1997	Classroom Calligraphy, Joan Miro Foundation, Mallorca, Spain Xu Bing, Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Charpa GaIIery(Galeria Charpa), Valencia, Spain Xu Bing: Lost Letters, AAN-The Fine Arts Factory, Berlin, Germany University Gallery, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois, USA
1996	Xu Bing: A Book from the Sky, University Art Museum, Albany, New York, USA
1995	Xu Bing: Language Lost, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, USA Xu Bing Series Exhibition 2, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago, USA Dille Center for the Arts, Moorhead State University, Minnesota, USA Xu Bing: Recent Projects, University Gallery, University of South Dakota, USA
1994	Xu Bing: Recent Work, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA Xu Bing: Negotiation Table, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California, USA Xu Bing: Experimental Exhibit, Han Mo Art Center, Beijing, China
1992	Xu Bing Series Exhibition 1, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks. (cat.)
1991	Three Installations by Xu Bing, Elvehjem Museum of Art, Madison-Wisconsin. (cat.)
1990	Xu Bing: A Book from the Sky, Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo. (cat.)
1988	Xu Bing: A Book from the Sky, National Fine Art Museum, Beijing.
Selected Groups Exhibitions
2001	Tracing: Works on Paper by Chinese Contemporary Artists, School of Art and Design, Alfred University, Alfred, NY. A Shriek Inside an Invisible Box, Meguro Museum, Tokyo, Japan. Bogus: Issues of the Counterfeit in Contemporary Art, Castle Gallery, University of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY. Give & Take, Serpentine Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Word & Meaning: Six Contemporary Chinese Artists, Ohio State University and Trisolini Gallery, Athens, Ohio. Translated Acts: Performance and Body Art from East Asia, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin. Power of the Word, Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY.
2000	Sydney Biennale, Art Gallery New south wales, Sydney. (cat.) Xu Bing: The Book & The Computer Project, Tokyo, Japan Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950s-1980s, Walker Art Center - Miami Art Museum. Power of the world: FAULCONER GALLERY, Grinnell College ,Iowa,USA. House, Home and Family. Furniture depot in Shanghai, China. Group Exhibition, Hiroshima City Museum, Hiroshima, Japan. Chinese Contemporary Art Documentation show, 1990s. Fukoka Asian Art Museum, Fukoka, Japan. ev+a 2000 friends and neighbours, Limerick City Gallery Of Art, Limerick, Ireland. (cat.) Inside Out, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, AU - Hong Kong Art Museum. (cat.) Himalaya Project, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Finnland.(cat.) Animal.Anima.Animus, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Canada (cat.) Group Show, Fuller Museum of Art, Boston. Art Chicago 2000, Chicago. Group Show, Apex Art Curatorial program, New York. Group Show, White Box Gallery, New York. Word project, Museum of Ohio University, Ohio. (cat.)
1999	Banner Project, MOMA, New York. (brochure) Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950s-1980s, Queensland Museum of Art, Brisbane, Australia. Art Worlds in Dialogue-Global Art Rhineland 2000, Museum Ludwig, Koln (cat.) Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, Queens Museum of Art, New York (cat.) Animal.Anima.Animus, P.S.1, New York (cat.) 1st Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan (cat.) Inside Out-Chinese New Art, SFMOMA and the Asian Art Museum (cat.) The Third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia (cat.) Zeitwenden-Looking Back and Looking Forward through the Fine Arts, Kunstmuseum, Bonn, Germany. (cat.) The 3rd Art Life 21, Spiral/Wacoal Art Center, Tokyo, Japan. CON(TEXT), The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York. Transience-Chinese Experimental Art at the End of the Twentieth Century, University. of Chicago Museum, Chicago Concerning Truth, Gallery 400, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Text Project, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, U.K. The Art of Artist's Books, Mexico City. University of Oregon Museum of Art, Eugene, Oregon. (cat.) Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. (cat.) Chinese Woodblock Prints, Mishkan Le'Omanut Museum of Art, Israel. Contemporary East Asian Letter Arts, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea.
1998	Crossings, The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (cat.) Animal.Anima.Animus., Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, Holland. (cat.) The Library of Babel, ICC-Intercommunication Center, Tokyo. (cat.) Transatlantic, CAAM - Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno Museum, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. (cat.) Site of Desire, 98' Taipei Biennial, Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taiwan. (cat.) Unreadable Books. New Letters, The Mitaka City Art Center, Japan. (cat.) Animal. Anima. Animus, Pori Art Museum, Finland. (cat.) Inside - out, Gallerie of Asia Society and P.S. 1, New York. (cat.) Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Xu Bing and Cai GuoQiang, Museum of Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York. New Installations by Xu Bing & Hong Yong Ping (Modern and Contemporary Art from South of the Yangzi River International Exhibition and Symposium), Art Beatus, Vancouver, Canada. (brochure) Beyond the Form-The Transformation and the Symbolic of Chinese Character in the Arts. New York Lincoln Center Cork Gallery, New York. "Freedom of Art Project", The Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam. Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Art and The Fin de Siecle, Lehman College Art Gallery, New York. (cat.) 5 Continentes y Una Cuidad, Mexico City Museum, Mexico. (cat.) Autonomous Action: New Chinese Performance Art on Video, Artspace, Auckland, New Zealand. Plural Speech, White Box Gallery, New York. (cat.)
1997	power, 2nd. Kwangju Biennale, Korea. (cat.) Transversions, 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa. (cat.) Around Us, Inside Us - Continents, Boras Konsmuseet Museum (Boras Konstmusem), Broas, Sweden (cat.) The other Modernities, House of World Cultures(Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt), Berlin, Germany (cat.) New China, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York. An Aspect of Chinese Contemporary Art: In Between Limits, Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, Kwangju, Korea. (cat.) New Art in China: Post 1989, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago.(cat.)
1996	Interzones, Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen. (cat.) Interzones 2, Uppsala Uppsala Museum (Konstmuseum, Uppsala), Uppsala, Sweden (cat.) Fractured Fairy Tales: Art in the Age of Categorical Disintegration, Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina. (cat.) Origins and Myths of Fire, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan. New Works: 96.3 , The International Artist in Residence program, ArtPace a Foundation for Contemporary Art, San Antonio, New Mexico. (brochure) Installation/Performances, Marstall Performance Centre, Munich. New Art in China, Post 1989, University of Oregon Museum of Art, Eugene, Oregon.(cat.) New Art in China, Post 1989, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Denver, Colorado. (cat.)
1995	China Avant-Garde Art, Santa Monica Art Center, Barcelona. (cat.) New Art in China, 1989-1994. Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada.(cat.)
1994	Cocido y Crudo, Reina Sofia Museum of Art (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia), Madrid.(cat.) Jumping Typography, O Art Museum, Tokyo.n (cat.) Flesh & Ciphers, Here Foundation, New York.
1993	B45th. Venice biennial. Venice. (cat.) Fragmented Memory-The Chinese Avant-Garde in Exile, Wexner Center for the Visual Arts, Columbus, Ohio. (cat.) Mao Goes Pop: China Post-1989, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.(cat.)
1992	Desire for Words, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong (cat.) New Art From China, Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane; City of Ballarat Art Museum, Ballarat; Canberra School of Art, Canberra; Museum of New South Wales, Sydney. (cat.) Looking for Tree of Life: A Journey to Asian contemporary Art, Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan. (cat.) International Art Project: FAX-ART, Venice, Manchester, Tokyo and Vienna. (cat.)
1991	The Book as an Object d' art, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong. (brochure) I Don't Want to Play Cards With Cezanne and Other Works, Pacific Asia Museum, California. (cat.)
1989	China Avant-Garde, National Fine Art Museum, Beijing, China. (brochure)
1986	1st Turkey Biennial, Ankara, Turkey. (cat.) British Museum, London. (cat.)
Prizes and Grants
1999	MacArthur Award, MacArthur Foundation.
1998	Pollock-Krasner Foundation
1996	ArtPace Foundation
Introduction to New English Calligraphy, 1994-1996 by Xu Bing The basic idea is to create a classroom in the gallery. Each desk has a small container of ink, brush and a elementary calligraphy book, created by myself. You will see that the book is a teaching tool for learning calligraphy and the words will have a square word style resembling Chinese strokes. The square words will look Chinese but not be understood by Chinese yet will be understandable for western people because in fact the square words are English. The audience can try to learn these words by following the "Elementary New English Calligraphy Instruction Video". When people try to recognize and write these words, they begin a process of having to forcefully and constantly readjust their ingrained thinking. During this process of readjustment and transformation, their former concepts are powerfully replaced and attacked. people need to have their routine thinking attacked in this way. While undergoing this process of strange and yet familiar (the strangeness comes from within oneself) transformation one can enter a realm never experienced before.
For further information, please contact: Canada: tel: (1) 604.688.2633, fax: (1) 604.688.2685