XU ZHEN®: The Forebears are Born
Hong Museum, Wenzhou is pleased to present XU ZHEN®’s solo exhibition "The Forebears are Born" on August 26, 2023. Curated by Lin Zi, the exhibition will showcase XU ZHEN®'s latest paintings and sculptures. This is the artist's first solo exhibition in Wenzhou and the opening exhibition of Hong Museum.
Xu Zhen (b. 1977, works and lives in Shanghai) has a career spanning over 20 years that dates back to 1998. Starting from his early expression of individual mentality and evolving towards a confrontation with social realities, his practice has embraced innovations in addressing the current state of the Anthropocene, while being constantly oriented around the dynamic energy and essence of culture. XU ZHEN® explores how art can create possibilities and offer new experiences when facing the changes of the time.
XU ZHEN® “Details（Underwear）”Series，2023
"The forebears are born by being trained. Training them is training a part of ourselves, the part that has been termed destiny." The exhibition at Hong Museum continues XU ZHEN®'s interest in the transformation, iteration, and re-evaluation of cultural symbols in a post-globalization ecology. Through art, the exhibition seeks to galvanize people into reimagining the future and primitivity. "Today, our knowledge, civilization, and truth (i.e. the forebears) must feel fresh. Only knowledge that can be applied afresh to the new era can have meaning."
Alien 2–Sleeping Hermaphroditus, Female Musician Playing a Zither2023, Mineral composites,
2023, Mineral composites, mineral pigments, stainless steel，200 x 104 x 52 cm; 85 x 42 x 116 cm
XU ZHEN® will present his signature series including "Eternity," "Tools," "Metal Language," and "Evolution", along with latest creations such as Alien 3, Alien 4, and the "Details" series. This exhibition will serve as a truthful testament to the spiritual core of the artist’s practice, as demonstrated in his creative approach to cultural objects and their contexts as well as the fresh contingencies thus triggered."
XU ZHEN®, founded by artist Xu Zhen in 2013, is the flagship art brand of MadeIn Company. Born in 1977, Xu Zhen is a leading Chinese artist and curator, and the founder of MadeIn Company. XU ZHEN® is committed to art creation and cutting-edge culture development. Through collecting and appreciating artworks and attending art-related events produced by XU ZHEN®, users can gain spiritual aspirations and experience artworks of the finest quality.
Xu Zhen, Artist, Curator, and Founder of MadeIn Company. Xu Zhen, born in 1977, lives and works in Shanghai. In 2004, Xu Zhen won the prize for ‘Best Artist’ at the China Contemporary Art Award (CCAA). His practice covers various media such as installations, video, painting, performance, etc. Xu Zhen has exhibited internationally, at museums and biennales, such as, the Venice Biennale (2001, 2005), The Museum of Modern Art (New York, 2004), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, 2005), MoMA PS1 (New York, 2006), Tate Liverpool (2007), Hayward Gallery (London, 2012), Lyon Biennial (2013), Armory Show (New York, 2014), Long Museum (Shanghai 2015), Al Riwaq Art Center (Qatar, 2016), Sydney Biennial (2016), Guggenheim Museum (New York, 2017), Sharjah Biennial (2019), Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, 2019), National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, 2020), among others.
XU ZHEN®, founded by artist Xu Zhen in 2013, is the flagship art brand of MadeIn Company. Born in 1977, Xu Zhen is a leading Chinese artist and curator, and the founder of MadeIn Company. XU ZHEN® is committed to art creation and cutting-edge culture development. Through collecting and appreciating artworks and attending art-related events produced by XU ZHEN®, users can gain spiritual aspirations and experience artworks of the finest quality.
Aside from being an artist, Xu Zhen is also a curator and the founder of MadeIn Company and MadeIn Art Museum. He co-curated with other artists major exhibitions in Shanghai and was one of the initiators of Art-Ba-Ba (www.art-ba-ba.com), a leading online forum launched in 2006 for discussion and critique of contemporary art. In 2009, Xu Zhen established ‘MadeIn Company’, a contemporary art creation corporate, focusing on the production of creativity, and devoted to the search of contemporary culture’s infinite possibilities. In 2013, MadeIn Company launched XU ZHEN® which is committed to art creation and cutting-edge culture development. In 2014, MadeIn Company established MadeIn Gallery and launched the first “Xu Zhen Store” in Shanghai in November 2016. The year 2022 marked the opening of the MadeIn Art Museum to the public.
Hongzheng Pan is the founder and director of Hong Museum. He holds a M.Phil. in East Asian Studies from the University of Cambridge and a M.Sc. in Sociology from the London School of Economics. He is also a participant in the "Seeing the First 500 Meters" Mapping Workshop.
Lin Zi, curator and independent critic. He has worked as a guest columnist for CAFA Infor, Collection, Art and Design, Art China, Art Panorama, Degree Critical, etc. He has published more than 90 articles on art criticism. As curator he has curated solo and group exhibitions such as "Turbo Turbot", "When Black Swallows Red", and "Fancy Blue Stroke" in New York; "Lichtung", “Opus Magnum”, and "Blueshift of Facades" etc. in Beijing; as well as "Inquiry to Change", "A Grand River", and “Summit of Hermits” in Zhengzhou.
Wenzhou is a city renowned for its high fluidity of population. Located in the heart of Wenzhou city, the Hong Museum stands as a beacon of artistic and social exploration. Its overarching goal is to rejuvenate and reinstate the interplay among art, social science, and the public by presenting and studying contemporary culture and art. We firmly believe that an art museum wields an essential influence in shaping society. As the embodiment of this vision, the museum serves as an entity, unifying the diverse facets of globalization and constructing a cultural institution that looks optimistically towards the future.