Xinwu XuHOMEWORKSBIO/CVCONTACT

Born in Jiangxi, Xu Xinwu’s years of migration and nomadic life have led him to reconsider the underlying condition of his Hakka ancestry. Beneath the experience of migration lies a persistent awareness of being “elsewhere”: one’s roots remain suspended in the wind; temporary residence becomes a norm; and identity is defined by the self rather than determined by place. One remains acutely aware of the world while calmly accepting this state of suspension, existing almost as an “outsider”.


The figures in Xu Xinwu’s paintings are neither drawn from life nor based on specific visual references. They emerge instead at the threshold between “traces” and “dreams”: at times, as the contours left behind when an old wall has peeled away; at others, as fleeting shadows passing through the half-awake state of late night, impossible to hold in place. These remnants of reality possess an inherent instability and incompleteness—as though they had once existed in the real world, only to be repeatedly blurred by time and memory. This is the basis for Xu’s definition of his practice as “Revelatory Realism Painting”, a form of painting in which reality emerges through its traces.


The figures in Xu’s paintings are marked by lowered gazes and emotionally neutral expressions. They are neither angry nor sorrowful, and they do not conform to any predetermined emotional script. This is not, however, a capitulation to nihilism. Rather, they stand calmly within the absurd, with an unperformed honesty, becoming the most authentic “outsider”. Xu sees this sense of detachment as an echo of the contemporary spiritual predicament. The “wind” that never ceases within the paintings is a physical reality beyond reason, an unruly force that tears at the heavy robes, causing the figures to tilt, lose their sense of weight, and become distorted. The robe is both the point at which the body bears the force of the wind and a burden that cannot be shed. In its struggle with the wind, the body acquires a quiet resilience. The enormous masks that occasionally appear, deliberately placed within the compositions, represent the “gaze of the other” imposed by social discipline. They reflect the repression of the individual under the collective gaze—being categorized, judged, and assigned a place within the group. The figures neither flee nor argue. They wield silence as a blade, carving, between wind and nothingness, an outline of themselves that cannot be erased.

Xinwu Xu (徐新武) born in 1984 in Jiangxi, China. He received his B.A. in Oil Painting from the China Academy of Art in 2008 and his master's degree in Painting from the Berlin University of the Arts in 2011. He currently lives and works in Shanghai, China.

Xu Xinwu's paintings consistently employ traces as a medium through which to explore the concealed truths of things, drawing on both an understanding of and an imaginative engagement with reality. Often adopting a realist narrative approach, his works examine the fluid relationships between human identity, emotions, and the external world, as well as the contradictions and equilibrium inherent in states of psychological tension.




Solo Exhibitions

“XU XINWU,” J: COLLECTION, Shanghai, China, 2026
“The Human Comedy,” BLANK Gallery, China, 2025
“The World Is a Net,” Cocoon Gallery, Guangzhou, China, 2022
“XXW,” Ying Space, Beijing, China, 2016
“Studio,” Boyi Art Museum, Hangzhou, China, 2012



Projects

“Export 2,” Tank Shanghai, Shanghai, China, 2019
“Export 1,” Heng Man Gallery, Chengdu, China, 2019
“Connection,” Alter Space, Shanghai, China, 2019
“Chaotic Era,” Yuyuan Road Old Post Office, Shanghai, China, 2018



Group Exhibitions

“GOLEM,” OS Gallery, Shanghai, China, 2024
“The Human World,” BLANK Gallery, Shanghai, China, 2022
“Cosmic Stranger,” X Contemporary Art, Changsha, China, 2022
“Another Night,” YIGUAN Art Centre, Nanjing, China, 2021
“Fusion and Innovation: Exhibition of Contemporary Art in Shanghai,” Lingang Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2020
“Boundary Between Time and Space,” Epoch Art Museum, Wenzhou, China, 2019
“Courage and Freedom II,” Z-art Centre, Shanghai, China, 2018
“Jet Lag,” Barbizon City Arts Centre, Barbizon, France, 2018
“Inexplicable,” Pearl Lam Galleries, Shanghai, China, 2017
“Deconstructing Aesthetic Forms and Their Opposites,” Ying Space, Beijing, China, 2015
“Muted Mysteries,” EGG Gallery, Beijing, China, 2015
“Urban Living Room,” 10th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China, 2015
“Chinese New Painting Award: Pluck the Laurel,” Hi Art Centre, Beijing, China, 2014
“DRANG,” Academy Gallery, Berlin, Germany, 2010
“Annual Creation Exhibition of Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Rundgang),” Berlin University of the Arts, Berlin, Germany, 2010
“Century Star,” Art Museum of China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China, 2005, 2006

: xinwu1984@gmail.com

: xinwu.xu

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