LEO XU Projects

LEO XU Projects is a contemporary art gallery based in Shanghai exhibiting young and international artists.

Exhibition

The gallery space was inauguratedby a grand group exhibition Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) that featured a roster of artists from China and abroad, including Liu Wei,Liang Yuanwei, Cheng Ran, Chen Wei, Gabriel Lester, Sun Xun, etc. Subsequent exhibitions include a series of solo exhibitions by young Chinese artists, such as Cheng Ran (Cheng Ran: What Why Now), Chen Wei(Chen Wei: More), Liu Chuang (Liu Chuang: Works #16-21), Michael Lin (Michael Lin: Shanghai Daily), Cui Jie (Cui Jie), and Guo Hongwei(Guo Hongwei: Editing). Two group exhibitions have also been held at the venue, Cui Jie, Li Shurui, Zhang Jungang & Li Jie and Boy: A Contemporary Portrait. The former, featuring works by the Beijing-based Cui Jie and Li Shurui and Harbin-based duo Zhang Jungang & Li Jie, provided a visual narrative of the relationship between the artists' life and the contemporary landscape. The latter portrays and explores the concept of masculinity while surveying the cultures, sub-cultures and ideologies that have been instrumental in defining young men in the first decade of 21st century. Boy: A Contemporary Portrait presents works produced by a group of artists who work with diverse medias, including the French choreographer Jérôme Bel, video artist Cheng Ran, Guo Hongwei, Hu Xiangqian, Li Qing, Liu Chuang, fashion photographer Mei Yuangui, Wolfgang Tillmans,Fred Tomaselli, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Danh Vo,Yang Fudong and Zhou Haiying.

Off-site Projects

Leo Xu Projects also collaborates with other institutions and organizations on off-site projects, including "Voyage: Recent videos by Young Chinese artists" at ShContemporary Art Fair 2011, "ArtistTalk: Apichatpong Weerasethakul" and “Artist Talk: Timespace” by Gabriel Lester at Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, and Shanghai Surprise, a project realized through the collective effort of Leo Xu and Azure Wu that comprises two parts: a group exhibition featuring young Chinese and expat authors who boast a close affliation with the city in either geographical or cultural terms, and a mobile library that captures Shanghai’s transforming cultural landscape. Leo Xu Projects also contributed to Michael Lin's solo exhibition Model Home: A Proposition by Michael Lin mounted at Shanghai Rockbund Art Museum in the spring of 2012. The exhibition was intended as a response to the Bauhaus contention that architecture should serve as a vehicle through which multiple forms of art, including architecture, painting and sculpture, are combined and integrated as a single unity. The show was realized through the collective effort by Michael Lin and several other artists. Cheng Ran produced a ten-channel video installation that incorporates a documentary of the making of Lin’s Model Home' as well as footages on the architectural environment and people. Dutch artist Gabriel Lestergave a talk on the relationship between time and space as part of the exhibition program. Leo Xu curated a sound project that extended the exhibition into a subtle soundscape that further facilitates the philosophical rumination over the dynamics between architecture, people, and urban landscape.

Artist

LEO XU Projects represents and collaborates with the following artists:
Chen Wei
Cheng Ran

Cui Jie

Gabriel Lester
Guo Hongwei
Li Qing
Li Shurui
Liu Chuang
Michael Lin
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Zhang Jungang & Li Jie

Art Fairs

Leo Xu Projects has participated in a number of international art fairs, including SH Contemporary,Frieze New York and Art Basel Hong Kong. At the Frieze Art Fair in New York in 2013, a selection of works by the Beijing-based artist Liu Chuang was presented, which focus on the indigenous culture of Shenzhen and Guangzhou, a region in south China populated with migrant works. Through installation works, the arist examines and calls into attention the immediate reality of contemporary China, exploring in particular how the notion of Shanzhai - the phenomenon of piracy and plagiarism in mass manufacturing and consumption- has infiltrated and inflected the local population and their ideological landscape. At Art Basel HK 2013, Leo Xu Projects premiered a photography-based project by the Beijing-based artist Chen Wei that investigates the youth culture of mainland China — music and life-style in particular. This series, set primarily on club dance-floors or at party scenes - aims to capture the moment of trance from the life of Chinese youth, who grow up in the post-89 years and are heavily influenced by the imported and pirate cultural products such as pirate music cassettes, CDs, DVDs, unofficially translated literature and art publications.