SHOWROOM EXTENDED: GUAN XIAO, ANNA UDDENBERG
Guan Xiao (b. 1983) lives and works in Beijing. The question of the individual is a central subject matter in Guan Xiao’s art, particularly the challenges of how one should, not only navigate, but harness the logic of time and speed and influx of technology while changing understandings of materiality and the burden of history. The complex and vivid aesthetic of her works in various media, including sculpture and video, could be considered as deliberations on these conditions, where instant knowledge about the world can provide a myriad of inspirations and influences. Looking to represent the artist’s own liminal space as being locally rooted and globally connected, Guan Xiao’s highly experimental work functions as an abstraction, formed by synthesizing numerous reference across timeand geographies.
Guan Xiao graduated from the Communication University of China and has exhibited internationally. Her work has been featured at Bonner Kunstverein (solo; 2019); Honolulu Biennial (2019); Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis (solo; 2019); Migros Museum, Zürich (2019); Kunsthalle Winterthur (solo; 2018); High Line, New York (2017); the 57th Venice Biennale, Venice (2017); Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin (2017); M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp (2017); 9th Berlin Biennale, Berlin (2016); Jeu de Paume, Paris (solo; 2016); the K11 Art Foundation, Shanghai (2016, solo); ICA, London (solo; 2016); ZKM, Karlsruhe (2016); Zabludowicz Collection, London (2016); Shortlist for Hugo Boss Asia Art Award at Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2015); the 13th Biennale de Lyon: La vie modern, Lyon (2015); Antenna Space, Shanghai (solo; 2015); 2015 Triennial: Surround Audience, New Museum, New York (2015); Daimler Contemporary Berlin (2015); Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna (2015); M HKA Museum, Antwerp (2014); Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin (solo; 2014); 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen (2012) and National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul (2007). Her work is in the collections of Boros Collection, Berlin; Daimler Collection, Stuttgart; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf; Rubell Family Collection, Miami; Tiroche DeLeon Collection, Tel Aviv among others.
Through the feedback loop of consumerist culture, Anna Uddenberg investigates how body culture, spirituality, and self-staging are intertwined with the mediation and production of subjectivity by new technologies and circulation forms. Her practice integrates earlier approaches to gender theory while acting as a space for reflecting on taste and class, appropriation and sexuality, pushing these questions into new material territories. Based on Judith Butler’s idea of performing gender as a rehearsed act, Uddenberg’s work continues to confront feminine identity in consumer culture and to explore performativity, by using sculpture and performance as visual platforms. The use of cars’ skeletal structures and other utilitarian structures in her latest abstract and figurative works refer to the concept of comfort zone and proxies for architecture. The “furnituresque”outlook is a result of multiple rearrangements of everyday objects and materials, which, through theworks are set in a new dialogue with one another. These rearrangements combine alien and familiar, asthey ultimately suggest a re-evaluation of existing normalities.
Anna Uddenberg, born 1982 in Stockholm, Sweden, lives and works in Berlin. Recent solo and group exhibitions have taken place at Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles (2019; solo); Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (2019; solo); 14. Fellbach Trienniale, Fellbach (2019); the 33rd Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana (2019); Migros Museum, Zurich (2019); Spazio Maiocchi, Milan (solo; 2018); nGbK, Berlin (2018); Centre Régional d’Art Contemporain Occitaine, Sète (2018); Splendid Cleaners, New York (2018); Athens Biennale, Athens (2018); Evoluon, Eindhoven (2018); Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Sankt Gallen (2018) House of Gaga Mexico City (2017); Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne (2017); Kiasma–Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (2017); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2017), Kamel Mennour, Paris (2017) and a solo exhibition at Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin in November 2017. Her work is part of the Kiasma Museum, Helsinki; Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles; Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Boros Collection, Berlin; K11 Foundation, Shanghai and Zabludowicz Collection, London.
