Xie Lei 2019
Untitled, 2017
Poe’s Garden, 2016
Born in 1983, Anhui, China
Lives and works in Paris, France
Education
2016
– PhD in Fine-Arts (Practice-based), Ecole des Beaux-Arts / Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris
2014
– Painting Research Programme, Royal College of Art, London
2010
– DNSAP (with felicitations of jury), Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris
2006
– BA, China Central Academy of Fine-Arts (CAFA), Beijing
Solo Exhibitions
Xie Lei
2019
– XIE LEI, Z Gallery Arts, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2017
– Poe’s Garden, Z Gallery Arts, Vancouver, BC, Canada
– Walden II, Yima Gallery, Chengdu, China
2016
– Entre Chien et Loup, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris
2015
– Sans rivage, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris
2014
– Murmur, Grenier du Chapître, Cahors / France
– Sortilège et diableries : l’inquiètant ordinaire, Château d’Ardelay, Les Herbiers / France
2013
– Xie Lei, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris
– Everything And Nothing, FEAST Projects, Hong Kong
2012
– Chimères, Yishu 8, Beijing
– Xie Lei, Galerie Charlotte Moser, Genève
2011
– Destination, FEAST Projects, Hong Kong
– Xie Lei, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris
2009
– Enter At Own Risk, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris
Group Exhibitions
2018
– Z Gallery Arts @ CONTEXT art miami, Miami, FL
-How To See [What Isn’t There], Langen Foundation, Neuss, curated by Gianni Jetzer
-Persona Grata, Musée de l’histoire de l’immigration, Paris, curated by Anne-Laure Flacelière, Isabelle Renard
-Group Show Moulin Joly, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris
-Collection David H. Brolliet – Geneva, Fondation Fernet-Branca, Saint-Louis
2017
– Z Gallery Arts @ CONTEXT art miami, Miami, FL
2016
– Utopie Picturale III, Galerie Forma, Lausanne
2014
– Memo II, White Space, Beijing
– Utopie Picturale II, Fonderie Kugler, Genève
2013
– Utopie Picturale, Villa Dutoit, Genève
– Ca grimpe?!, Galerie Charlotte Moser, Genève
2012
– 1912-2012 France – Chine, un siècle de dialogue, Yishu8, Beijing
– Visage et Portrait, Galerie Charlotte Moser, Genève
– Tranches de carrés sur tranches de cercles, Saline Royale, Arc-et-Senans / France
2011
– Résonance / Dissonance, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris
– Le Vent d’après, (curator Jean de Loisy), Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris
2010
– Ligne de Chance, Fondation Ricard, Paris
2008
– Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris
– Shcontemporary, Marlborough Gallery, Shanghai
– Institut de France, Paris
– Marlborough Gallery, New York
– Galerie Serge Aboukrat, Paris
– Salon de Montrouge, Montrouge / France
2007
– Galerie Serge Aboukrat, Paris
2006
– Shi Tang Arts Space, Beijing
2012
– Prix Alphonse Cellier
2011
– Prix Nicolas Feuillate
2010
– Bourse de la Mairie de Paris pour l’art contemporain
2008
– Bourse Colin-Lefrancq, Hunter College, New York
2003
– Drawing Award CAFA
Grants
Catalogues
2014
– Murmur, Les Rencontres d’Art Contemporain, text by Guitemie Maldonado
2013
– XIE LEI, galerie Anne de Villepoix, text by François-René Martin
2012
– XIE LEI – Chimères, Yishu8, text by Henry-Claude Cousseau, Liang Shuhan, Emmanuel Fessy
– Tranches de carrés sur tranches de cercles, Saline Royale d’Arc-et-Senans, text by Pauline Lafille
– XIE LEI, galerie Charlotte Moser
2011
– Destination, FEAST Projects, text by Philippe Koutouzis
– XIE LEI, galerie Anne de Villepoix
– Le Vent d’après, Beaux-Arts de Paris, text by Jean de Loisy
2010
– Ligne de Chance, Fondation Ricard and Beaux-Arts de Paris
2008
– Salon de Montrouge
2015
– LeJournaldesArts.fr, 26 October, “Les visions hallucinées de Xie Lei” by Pauline Vidal
2014
– Asian Art, February 2014, Profile 2-5, by Olivia Sand
– Elephant Magazine, Issue 19, summer 2014, p.6
2013
– Le Journal des Arts, N° 398, 4-17 October, p.31, “La peinture Onirique de Xie Lei” by Pauline Vidal
– Le Monde, N°21361, 22-23 September, p.12, by Philippe Dagen
– FAZ, 27 September, by Bettina Wohlfarth
2012
– Time Out Beijing, 09 November, p.75, “Hidden Current” by Liu Shiyao
– Gallery, November Issue, “Xie Lei: New Communication And Allure” by Yue Lian
– Contemporary Art, December Issue, “Xie Lei: Double re-interpretation of east and west tradition” by Chen Hongming
– Master Oriental Art, December Issue, p.18, “Xie Lei in Yishu8” by Xu Nan
– Hi Art, 22 October, “Xie Lei pay tribute to masters in ‘Chimères’ ” by Tian Tian
– Beijing Review, 23 October, “Chimères: Xie Lei in Yishu8” by Yang Jiaqing
– Jinghua Newspaper, 23 October, “Xie Lei solo” by Xu Qinghong
– Xin Hua News Daily, 23 October, “Xie Lei, Chinese artist in France” by Zhang Shuqi
– China Art Newspaper, N° 1215, 20 October, “Xie Lei debut in Yishu8” by Xiong Ying
2011
– Connaissance des Arts, February N°690, p.104 “l’artiste du mois: le monde surnaturel de Xie Lei” by Valérie de Maulmin
– A Nous, 4 July, p.24, “Espoirs – Le Vent d’après” by Sonia Desprez
– Splux, December, p.64-65, “Destination” by Monica Lau
– The Art Economist, Issue 9, p.67, “Xie Lei, artist to watch” by Bruce Helander
– Le Figaro, 14 February, by Valérie Duponchelle
XIE LEI | XIE LEI
On View: Feb 21 – Mar 23. 2019
Artist Reception: Thursday, Feb 21, 2019. 6PM – 8PM
Gallery Hours: Fri – Sat 10AM – 5PM And by appointment
102 – 1688 West 1st Avenue, Vancouver, BC Canada V6J 1G1
Stare, 2018 oil on canvas
33 x 24cm Xie Lei @ Z Gallery Arts
This is the first time I have written something for my own exhibition. It’s not a statement, but some fragments of thoughts and notes merging as the stream of consciousness.
I discovered quite recently a popular 1970s British sketch ‘How Not to Be Seen’ from Monty Python’s Flying Circus in which the narrator introduces people who are hiding in the landscape. The narrator explains the importance of not being seen and then he delights in blowing them up.
The landscapes were no more peaceful than before, neither were the on-screen images themselves, and that which was even more invisible (I might say humanity, but wouldn’t like to use this word here) was destroyed by this obsessive and ironic perversion.
Paradoxically (like Poussin’s 17th Century landscape paintings that depict hiding and mysterious tragedies) it reminded me of an image I came across in a newspaper last summer, which, ever since, has stuck in my mind.
The photograph showed Turkish-German footballer Mesut Özil at his controversial meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his presidential campaign. In the image, Özil was silently praying on the football pitch. I have to admit that I have never been interested in football and know nothing about it. Nonetheless, I was very intrigued by his presence in the image and by the potentiality of the image’s banality, within which another image was hiding, or, beyond this image, something new could appear and disappear. I wondered why some fans had adopted a racist attitude towards Özil, and how he has managed to balance his dual identity, as asking him to choose one side over the other is somehow like asking him to disobey himself.
This image attracted me, but I saw it with the detachment shaped by my own experience: That of an artist born in China and living in France for over twelve years, a period not yet so long, but neither too short. I bring a new body of work exploring the themes of ambiguity and sociocultural identity to this exhibition in the city of Vancouver, a place where significant immigration has continued for centuries and where questions of diversity, integration and cohabitation still remain to this day. My paintings are here, talking without speaking…
Xie Lei
______________________
Xie Lei was born in 1983 in Anhui Province, China. He has been living and working in Paris since 2006, where Galerie Anne de Villepoix regularly organizes solo exhibitions of his work. French public institutions have organized solo exhibitions of his work, including Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris (2016); Château d’Ardelay, Les Herbiers (2014) and Les Rencontres d’Art Contemporain in Cahors (2014). He had recently other solo exhibitions at the Galerie Charlotte Moser, Geneva; Feast Projects, Hong Kong and Foundation Yishu 8, Beijing. His work was also shown in group exhibitions at Langen Foundation, Neuss (cur. Gianni Jetzer); Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration, Paris (cur. Anne-Laure Flacelière, Isabelle Renard); Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris (cur. Jean de Loisy, Ulla von Brandenburg); Foundation Fernet-Branca, Saint- Louis; Saline Royale in Arc-et-Senans and Foundation Ricard in Paris. In 2016, Xie Lei has received his practice-based PhD in visual-arts at Ecole normale supérieure and Ecole Nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris (PSL).
Out of a Whirlwind
Liang Shuhan
From Dreams to Fables
Henry-Claude Cousseau
Elephant
Issue 19 – Summer 2014
Incandescences
Guitemie Maldonado