Chinese American Arts Council | Gallery 456
The Duet’s Carniva
Tianxing Xu’s solo exhibition “The Duet’s Carnival” showcases 7 pairs of works, including 10 paintings, 2 works on paper, and a sculpture co-created by Xu and artist Sangmin Lee during their residency at NARS Foundation.
Xu’s works began with memories of regret, unfulfilled promises, and panic. There are no better places than the carnival - the ultimate controlled chaos to blend euphoria with hysteria. Largely influenced by Jean Baudrillard, Xu’s works, as iterations of simulacrums, substitute the signs of the real to create false orders. Numbers, glitches, color codings appear in his works repetitively only to hint at a fictional logic. Whereas Baudrillard believes a carnival (in his original example, Disneyland) functions as a “deterrence machine,” Xu’s false orders become lures, quite literally “sugar-coating” the era of simulation that we had already entered.
In this solo exhibition, all works appear in pairs, providing a separate line of physical dichotomy in addition to the “reality vs. simulacra” rhetoric which through-lines Xu’s practice. If Baudrillard believes that the confusion of the medium and the message is a dire consequence of the process of simulation, Xu urges us to at least bring a plus one, even if it is yourself. Perhaps we are able to form a duet with our doppelgangers to sing in unison.
Press release written by Phil Zheng Cai
"The Duet’s Carnival" solo exhibition
Chinese American Arts Council | Gallery 456 456 Broadway 3rd Floor, New York
Curated by Phil Zheng Cai
Gratitude to Eli Klein Gallery
July 18 - August 1, 2025
Sangmin Lee X Tianxing Xu
No Surprises, 2025
Insulation foam, aluminum screen mesh, sterling silver and panel
14 x 11 x 9 inches (36 × 28 × 23 cm)
"After the Orgy" solo exhibition
Eli Marsh Gallery, Amherst College Fayerweather Hall, Amherst, MA
Curated by Adam R. Levine Gratitude to Amherst College
Sep - Oct 2024
Xu utilizes techniques of layering and pers-pective to imbue his works with a texture that coexists both rationally and fantastically, presenting a virtual world that is constantly self-imitating and self-simulating. In his paintings, the interlacing layers of images and symbols create a complex visual depth, leading the audience into a world that is both familiar and unfamiliar, granting them the utmost freedom to construct the final meanings themselves. These scenes of order and chaos coexist, symbolizing how society, in its continuous replication and consumption of past symbols, progressively loses focus on their essential meanings, plunging into an abyss of hollowing and alienation. This quiet echo following the orgy's end exposes the indifference and inescapable predicament faced by people as modern society relentlessly reproduces past symbols and ideals. In Xu's work, he abstracts amusement park equipment into unadulterated visual elements (The amusement park's lively festivities in real life sharply contrast with the tranquility of geometric patterns in the artwork), gradually diluting the significance of symbols in modern culture until they become mere accumulations of meaninglessness.
Press release written by Tia Xu
"After the Orgy" solo exhibition
Eli Marsh Gallery, Amherst College Fayerweather Hall, Amherst, MA
Curated by Adam R. Levine Gratitude to Amherst College
Sep - Oct 2024
Installation images by
Stephen Petegorsky
Savannah College of Art and Design
"COLORING BOOK" thesis exhibition
In his thesis exhibition COLORING BOOK, Tianxing Xu presents a collection of paintings, prints, and artist’s books that serve as building plans for an imagined amusement park. Through the schematics of this unrealized fairground, Tianxing Xu explores the concept of actualization, rendering objects and spaces as distorted, fragmented, and blurred, constructing chaos via absolute order. For Tianxing Xu, the works remain unfinished without the presence of the audience. In this exhibition, the artist invites viewers to participate in the works’ completion by coloring in a book of diagrams in the gallery. Revolving around themes of regret, unfulfilled promises, and a sense of distance, the personal stories embedded in Tianxing Xu’s works are private and ineffable. Like pages ripped from a diary, each work seeks to capture the emotions of an important day long forgotten. In the works on view, images from the artist’s memory appear overexposed and spotty, as if scorching sunlight has bleached their surface, prolonging his search for clarity in recollection.
Press release written by Brittany Richmond Assistant Curator, SCAD Museum of Art
"COLORING BOOK" thesis exhibition
Alexander Hall Gallery, Savannah, GA
Savannah College of Art and Design
Curated by Brittany Richmond
Gratitude to SCAD Painting Department
May 2–14 2023
Solar
2023, 55x41 in
Acrylic and ink on burlap
"SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT"
Nobuhito Nishigawara & Tianxing Xu
Alan Avery Art Company, Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Art Week 2023, October 2-8
The exhibition will feature returning artist Nobuhito Nishigawara, born in Nagoya, Japan, returning for his second exhibition. He is an internationally renowned ceramicist sculpture artist. Nishigawara's recent series, "Artificial Nature," constructs a framework for exploring ideas and interpretations rooted in the Japanese concept of "MA," signifying the space between or emptiness. Within this series, ambiguity is harnessed as a powerful tool, inviting viewers to engage in a personal journey of reflection and interpretation. Nishigawara exhibits his sculptures both locally and nationally.
