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  • 2024
    • Xu Bing: Where There Is a Question, There Is …
    • Xu Bing: Art Satellite
    • Xu Bing: Word Alchemy
    • A Moment in Time: Xu Bing in Rome
    • 【Now exhibiting】The Contemporary Logic of "Streams, Mountains and Qingyuan" : Contemporary Ink Lecture Series
    • 【Now exhibiting】Illusive Masks
    • Thirty years of Contemporary Art in China and Singapore
    • Universal / Remote
    • Inside & outside of a book
    ......
  • 2023
    • 【Now exhibiting】Mythical Creatures: China and the World
    • Opening Ceremony of Hangzhou Center
    • Motion is Action
    • MMAF Shanghai
    • Beijing City Library "Exhibition Season" Public Art Exhibition
    • Art Encounters with Jay
    • White Holes: The Mysteries and Modern Perceptions of Oracle Bone Script
    • “1 Tree 1 World ”ANOBO World Children's Science and Technology Art Tour
    • A Journey
    • Time Gravity 2023 Cheng Du Biennale
    • Opening Ceremony of National Museum of World Writing Systems
    ......
  • 2022
    • Communication Through Art -- Wuhan Biennale 2022
    • Transmutation: The 7th Guangzhou Triennale
    • Accumulation -- Print Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Art Masters
    • The Grand Canal As Epic on Earth
    • Body Cosmos: the Art of Living Together
    • Louis&Vuitton Exhibition
    • The World of Study
    • Xu Bing: Gravitational Arena
    • Hawai'i Triennial
    • 10th edition of Manif d'art 10: The Quebec City Biennial
    ......
  • 2021
    • Xu Bing: Found in Translation
    • Xu Bing: Art Beyond the Kármán Line
    • Flying Ink: Hengshan International Calligraphy Art Exhibition
    • Xu Bing: Book from the Ground Pop-up Book
    • The Met—150th Anniversary Print Portfolio
    • Toward Common Cause
    • 2020 Asia Society Triennial
    ......
  • 2020
    • Exodus II: Unhinging the Great Wall
    • Spotlight on a New Generation: Contemporary Chinese Artists
    • The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China
    • In Real Life
    ......
  • 2019
    • Series of Repetition at the Reopened MoMA
    • Background Story: Landscape after Huang Gongwang
    • World Picture: Xu Bing Dragonfly Eyes
    • One: Xu Bing
    • Xu Bing: Thought and Method
    • The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China
    • Xu Bing: Art for the People
    ......
  • 2018
    • Xu Bing: Thought and Method
    • Xu Bing: Language and Nature
    ......
  • 2017
    • Xu Bing
    • Art and China After 1989: Theater of the World
    • Language & the Art of Xu Bing
    ......
  • 2016
    • Xu Bing: Book from the Ground
    • Xu Bing: Book from the Sky
    ......
  • 2015
    • Bird Language
    • Phoenix (2015): All the World's Futures
    • Background Story: A New Approach to Landscape Painting
    • Writing Between Heaven and Earth
    • Things Are Not What They First Appear
    ......
  • 2014
    • The Language of Xu Bing
    • Xu Bing: A Retrospective
    • Metamorphosis: The Art of Xu Bing
    • A Special Exhibition in Taiwan: Children's Forest Project
    • Xu Bing: Phoenix
    ......
  • 2013
    • Traveling to the Wonderland
    • Xu Bing: Landscript
    • Nine Deaths, Two Births: Xu Bing's Phoenix Project
    ......
  • 2012
    • Xu Bing:Phoenix
    • Book From the Ground: From Point to Point
    • Xu Bing: Book from the Sky to Book from the Ground
    • Forest Project & Book from the Ground
    • Xu Bing: Square Word Calligraphy
    ......
  • 2011
    • Xu Bing: Background Story 7
    • Living Word 3
    • Tobacco Project 3
    • Where Does the Dust Itself Collect?
    • Square Word Calligraphy Classroom
    ......
  • 2010
    • Xu Bing: Aerial Phoenix Project
    • Phoenix Project
    ......
  • 2009
    • Xu Bing: Forest Project Exhibition
    ......
  • 2008
    • Xu Bing
    ......
  • 2007
    • Xu Bing's Literary Creations: From Book from the Sky to Book from the Ground
    ......
  • 2006
    • Xu Bing: Special Exhibition
    ......
  • 2005
    • Xu Bing: Ghosts Pounding the Wall
    ......
  • 2004
    • Group Show: Artes Mundi - Wales International Visual Art Prize
    • Xu Bing: El Pozo de la Verdad/The Well of Truth
    • Xu Bing in Berlin
    • Xu Bing: Tobacco Project in Shanghai
    • Xu Bing: The Glassy Surface of a Lake
    ......
  • 2002
    • Xu Bing: Living Word 2
    ......
  • 2001
    • Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing
    • Reading Landscape
    ......
  • 2000
    • Landscript: Sydney
    • The Tobacco Project: A Series of Installations Created by Xu Bing
    ......
  • 1998
    • Xu Bing: Panda Zoo
    ......
  • 1997
    • The Second Johannesburg Biennale
    • Xu Bing: Lost Letters
    ......
  • 1991
    • Three Installations by Xu Bing
    ......
......
Back Home

The Language of Xu Bing

[Top] Holding the Brush (1996) [Bottom] Softening the Brush (1996)

Backbone (2011)

[Left] The Mustard Seed Garden Landscape (2010) [Back] The Character of Characters (2012) [Center] Silkworm Book (1998) [Right] Holding the Brush (1996)

The Mustard Seed Garden Landscape (2010)

[Back] The Character of Characters (2012), [Upper Right] Holding the Brush (1996), [Lower Right] Softening the Brush (1996)

[Left] The Mustard Seed Garden Landscape (2010) [Back] The Character of Characters (2012) (Right) Silkworm Book (1998)

Square Word Calligraphy: Rise Free from Care (2009)

[Left] The Mustard Seed Garden Landscape (2010) [Back] The Character of Characters (2012) [Center] Silkworm Book (1998) [Right] Holding the Brush (1996)

[Left] The Character of Characters (2012) [Center] Silkworm Book (1998) [Right] Holding the Brush (1996)

PHOTO|VIDEO

Duration: December 20, 2014 — July 26, 2015 

Location: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Exhibited Works: Various calligraphy, video, & installation works

Xu Bing: A Retrospective

Magic Carpet (2006)

Tobacco Project: Honor and Splendor (2004)

Ghosts Pounding the Wall (1990-1991)

Background Story (2004-2014)

Mustard Seed Garden Landscape Scroll (2010)

Four Poems of W.B. Yeats (2008)

A,B,C... (1991)

Landscript (2013)

A Case Study of Transference (1993-1994)

Book from the Sky (1987-1991)

Early Drawings and Prints (1985)

Brilliant Mountain Flowers Magazine (1975-1977)

Book From the Ground (2003- ongoing)

Silkworm Series (1994-2001)

Square Word Calligraphy and the Classroom (1994-2012)

Cultural Animal

Where Does the Dust Itself Collect?

PHOTO|VIDEO

Duration: January 25, 2014 — April 20, 2014

Location: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

Exhibited Works: Brilliant Mountain Flowers Magazine, Shattered Jade, Big Tire, Five Seris of Repetitions, Book from the Sky, Ghosts Pounding the Wall, A, B, C..., A Case Study of Transference, Cultural Animal, Telephone, Silkworm Series, Square Word Calligraphy and the Classroom, Landscript, Tobacco Project, Where Does the Dust Itself Collect?, Background Story, Magic Carpet, Mustard Seed Garden, Landscape Scroll, Book from the Ground,The Character of Characters


Click here fore a 360°VR virtual tour

Metamorphosis: The Art of Xu Bing

English Square Word Calligraphy: Zhuang Zi

Bird Language

Background Story: Landscape in the Style of Xu Daoning

Tobacco Project: Bakebone

Tobacco Project: Tobacco Book

The Character of Characters

PHOTO|VIDEO

Duration: May 8, 2014 — August 31, 2014

Location: Asia Society Hong Kong Center, Hong Kong, China

Exhibited Works: Square Word Calligraphy, Living Word, Background Story, Tobacco Project

A Special Exhibition in Taiwan: Children's Forest Project

Forest Project, Taiwan, 2014

Forest Project, Taiwan, 2014

Forest Project, Taiwan, 2014

Forest Project, Taiwan, 2014

Forest Project, Taiwan, 2014

Forest Project, Taiwan, 2014

Forest Project, Taiwan, 2014

Forest Project, Taiwan, 2014

PHOTO|VIDEO

Duration: March 8, 2014 — May 4, 2014 

Location: National History Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

Exhibited Work: Forest Project (Taiwan)


Xu Bing’s Forest Project originated from Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet, a project organized by University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA), Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), and Rare. For the Human/Nature Project, artists were invited to several world cultural heritage sites to promote local environmental awareness through their art. In 2005, Xu Bing traveled to Kenya and began his Forest Project where he used paintings to raise funds dedicated to the nation’s conservation of forest resources. Later on, Xu Bing expanded the Forest Project to Brazil, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and the “Computer Contest” platform in China. Now, more than 200,000 children have participated in Xu Bing’s Forest Project.


The Forest Project: Taiwan began in response to the severe damages that the peoples of Sandimen Village suffered from Typhoon Morakot. This exhibition serves as a creative model of Xu Bing’s to foster global awareness of environmental protection, art education, and cultural heritage. Children who participated in Xu Bing’s on-site teaching and supplied their paintings are referred to as Forest Warriors. During the Forest Project: Taiwan in 2013, teaching materials were provided online as open data to inspire the youth to paint trees and create a forest together. Currently, the project has collected more than 1,400 paintings from children in Taiwan. While these paintings are displayed (in original or digital forms) in the National Museum of History, we hope more people can purchase these works online and raise enough funds to care for the lands of Taiwan.

Xu Bing: Phoenix

Phoenix (2008-2010)

Phoenix (2008-2010)

Phoenix (2008-2010)

Phoenix (2008-2010)

Phoenix (2008-2010)

Phoenix (2008-2010)

Phoenix (2008-2010)

Female Phoenix

PHOTO|VIDEO

Duration: January 2014 — April 2015

Location: The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York, USA

Exhibited Work: Phoenix