Guan Xiao (*1983, Chongqing) is a contemporary artist with international exhibitions in renowned museums and galleries such as the Kunsthalle Winterthur, the Jeu de Paume in Paris, the ICA London and the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. Her works have been shown at major biennials and in numerous group exhibitions worldwide. Her works in public space include commissions in Cologne, New York and South Korea. Guan Xiao lives and works in Beijing.
Guan Xiao's works move between the media of sculpture, installation and video and defy easy categorization. Her art uses unusual combinations of objects, images and media to play with the museum context in a humorous way, bringing together anachronistic pairings of the antique and the futuristic, the organic and the inorganic in her works. She often refers to the themes of presentation and reproduction. Oil paper umbrellas, camera tripods, car tires, ropes and knee pads find their place in anthropomorphic sculptures and expansive installations that combine handcrafted details and elements cast from nature with industrially manufactured, digitally processed or 3D-printed components.
Her exhibition at the Kunsthalle Wien will present a new series of sculptures centered around the fundamental themes of food and shelter. These form the core of a sophisticated narrative.
October 8, 2025 to January 6, 2026
kunsthallewien.at
